Glen Gray
Glenn Gray Knoblauch, known professionally as Glen Gray, was a jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.Early years
Gray was born to Lurdie P. and Agnes Knoblauch in Metamora, Illinois. His father was a saloon keeper and railroad worker who died when Glen was two years of age. He had an older sister. His widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner, and moved her family to Roanoke. Gray graduated from Roanoke High School, in 1917 where he played basketball and acquired his nickname, "Spike".Career
Gray attended the American Conservatory of Music in 1921 but left during his first year to go to Peoria, Illinois, to play with George Haschert's orchestra. From 1924 to 1929, he played with several orchestras in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1956, he went back into the studio to record the first of what became a series of LPs for Capitol Records, which recreated the sounds of the big band era in stereo. Casa Loma in Hi-Fi was the result, with 14 high-fidelity recordings.Gray and his wife had one son.
In 1963 Gray died in Plymouth, Massachusetts of lymphoma, aged 63.
