Drum roll, please: Lannie Garrett, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Max Morath, Billy Murray and Elizabeth Spencer are the latest inductees into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, the organization announced this morning.
The musicians will be the sixth group inducted into the hallowed halls of Colorado music history. The induction ceremony takes place on April 16 at The University of Colorado Boulder’s Glenn Miller Ballroom, including performances by the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Lannie Garrett in honor of the new members. Tickets for the induction ceremony go on sale Friday, Jan. 29 via axs.com.
Lannie Garrett is a local cabaret legend. In the seventies, shortly after moving to Colorado from Chicago, she began performing at Glendale nightclub the Warehouse, where she opened for Ray Charles and Tina Turner among others. She went on to perform cabaret in the space that’s now Comedy Works in Larimer Square before settling into a 10-year residency at the since closed Denver Buffalo Co. This year marks a decade since Garrett opened Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, a singular space in Denver’s eclectic music scene.
Glenn Miller was one of the big band genre’s biggest names. The Colorado native matriculated into the University of Colorado in 1923 and would go on to write massive hits like “In The Mood” and “Midnight Serenade.” At the peak of his career, Miller joined the Army Air Force Band to revamp the status quo of the military band during World War II. In 1944, Miller disappeared while flying over the English Channel on his way to perform for soldiers in France.
Denver native Paul Whiteman, often referred to as “The King of Jazz,” was a popular entertainer in the 1920s and 1930s, often appearing on the radio and television wiht his orchestral band.
Max Morath was a ragtime pianist, composer, actor and author. After graduating from Colorado College, the Colorado Springs native would go on to star in the massively popular 1960s television show “The Ragtime Era.”
Born in 1877, Billy Murray was one of Colorado’s first famous musicians. At 16, he performed with a traveling band and would go on to tour the vaudeville circuit as a singer. When his recordings were released on Edison Cylinders at the turn of the century, his comic and “ethnic” songs launched him into the public eye.
Elizabeth Spencer was a singer, actress and violinist who was well-known for the poetry and stories she recited the radio in the 1920s. She was one of Thomas Edison’s primary recording singers.
Last year saw Nitty Gritty Dirt Band‘s Jimmy Ibbotson, Manassas, Poco and Firefall welcomed into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Check out our photos of the evening in the link below.
By Dylan Owens