THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200499
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Whom do these bring to mind:
Marie, Night Train, I'll Never Smile Again, Skylark, Song of India, Stardust, On the Sunny Side of the Street. . .
It may well bring to your mind the time, in high school or college, when you and your date danced to the music of those tunes and others played by Tommy Dorsey on the juke box or in person.
What it brings to mine is the evening that I was, five minutes after midnight, getting my date from the Richmond College gymnasium to the dorm at Westhampton College.
May Keller, the Iron Dean, campused her for two months.
``It was all my fault, Ma'am,'' I told the dean. ``I'll campus myself if you let her off.''
She smiled. And shook her head.
Dorsey hit his peak in 1941, and that bothered him. He didn't want to be at the top because then the only way left to go was down.
Once, he had a flack go on the road and extol Artie Shaw's band because Dorsey feared he was getting too popular.
The Dorsey Orchestra, conducted by trombonist Buddy Morrow, who as a youth was with all the kings of swing, will play at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at Willett Hall in Portsmouth.
Willett Hall is off High Street next door to Maryview Medical Center. (That ought to get you there.) Tickets are $10.50 in advance and $12 at the door.
So what impels me to write about it? On an elevator the other day, the piped-in music was delivering Dorsey's Just as Though You Were Here.
A college student exclaimed, ``Cool!''
``I thought your generation didn't like swing,'' I said.
``They haven't heard it,'' she replied.
In another treat, the United States Naval Academy Glee Club, 75 strong, will be in concert at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at Community United Methodist Church, 1072 Old Kempsville Road, Virginia Beach. For more information, call 495-1021.
There is no charge unless you'd like to make a donation of, say, $5.
``When our concert series was established,'' writes Sandra Billy, the series coordinator, ``we hoped to provide great music in Kempsville for folks who weren't always able to buy a full-ticket price.
``We have operated several years on free-will offerings and with very generous artists who are willing to perform for what's in the collection plate.''
She said some of her Norfolk friends tell her that if you don't charge, people won't think it's worthwhile and just won't come.
``Do you think folks really have to shell out money before they can enjoy something?'' she writes.
Not if it's the choir of the U.S. Naval Academy, most especially in Hampton Roads, the capital of the U.S. Navy. by CNB