THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506040038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Walter Gray's eyes are on the future. But his ears are in the past.
``The music today is not like it was in those days,'' says the 75-year-old Nags Head resident. ``The years 1935 to 1945 were the greatest years in the history of entertainment. We have to get the younger generation interested in this music. It simply has to be done.''
``This music'' from ``those years'' is the sound of the Big Band Era.
The sounds from Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Helen O'Connell represent not only history but a way of life for Walter Gray and his wife, Estelle.
``The country was happier then,'' Gray says. ``The music was important because it kept morale up during World War II. But it just seemed that there was an elegance, and a sort of platonic love among people that you don't see anymore. We had crime, but it's not like it is today.''
The Grays, through the local Big Band Preservation Society, have been bringing swing to the Outer Banks for 20 years. Walt's love affair with the tunes that kept America dancing during the war years began in 1938 around the nation's capital. It was in the Spanish Ballroom of Washington's Glen Echo Amusement Park that he saw his first big band - the legendary Tommy Dorsey.
``Everyone packed the front of the stage, it was something.''
But a performance at the Capitol Theatre on 14 and F Streets made 19-year-old Walt Gray forever smitten with the unmistakable melodies of the war years.
``I was in the first row of the balcony when Glenn Miller's Orchestra was playing. They put a blue spotlight on the trombones and played `Danny Boy.' I remember it like it was yesterday.
``I used to drive my mother crazy, I played it so loud.''
Gray has been bringing back yesterday to the Outer Banks year after year. This summer, the Tommy Dorsey Band will play the beach, and this fall, The Glenn Miller Orchestra will perform.
``People talk about soul music, but big band music is soul music,'' he says. ``We have a lot of young people who come to our concerts, and they're just agog when they hear it for the first time. It's a kick to see them dance.''
Gray is concerned that today's music and other elements of society such as television have helped turn America into a cold, mean place. Along U.S. 158 toward Hampton Roads, he erected billboards addressing that issue.
In a seemingly graceless age, Walt Gray wants to see some of the kindness and the gentleness return.
``There was an atmosphere in the '30s and '40s that just go beyond human understanding. I can't explain it. But we need to bring that back.''
Walt and Estelle Gray are trying to do just that, a concert at a time. He has seen an inkling of that on a nationwide basis, with the popularity of Harry Connick Jr. and the re-emergence of Tony Bennett.
``When Tony Bennett recorded with k.d. lang, that was great,'' he says. ``A lot of people say the wheel is turning, but I'm impatient.''
Gray doesn't know how many more seasons he will bring in the big bands to play ``Moonlight Serenade'' or ``String of Pearls'' or ``Song of India.'' But he is sure there will be a time when couples will dance cheek to cheek, jitterbug, and remember. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Walter Gray wants people to remember the musical era he calls ``the
greatest years.''
by CNB