An alto sax loaned by a kindly
uncle started orchestra leader Don Glasser on his career as a musician.
How far he and his orchestra have come is quickly and pleasantly apparent to
anyone that has had the opportunity to see, hear, and dance to his
orchestra. It was Don's mother who initially started him on piano
lessons when he was quite young. The lessons continued for about six
months, when his uncle learned of Don's interest in music and loaned him an
alto sax. Don used this borrowed instrument until he was able to buy
his own.
Smooth saxophone music is an important part of the
style that characterizes Don Glasser's orchestra. This style, Don
admits quite freely, is carefully modeled after that developed by the two
ever-popular bands of Guy Lombardo and Jan Garber. Many of the
orchestrations were written by Don himself, and feature the band's sweet and
smooth sax section, as well as the muted trumphets and trombones.
All in all, Don Glasser's "Smooth As Glass"
orchestra is a silky combination that's been pleasing scores of
discriminating dancers in hotels and ballrooms throughout the country.
Bandleader Don Glasser, from the very inception of the orchestra, has
strived to mold his group into a unit that would perform the type of
danceable music that would keep his audiences pleased and asking for more.
That he has accomplished this is reflected in the continuous demands for
return engagements that Don receives from hotels and ballrooms. "They
seem to like our music a lot," Don says rather modestly.
For out-and-out vivacity, charm and a seemingly
indefatigable enthusiasm, lovely vocalist Lois Costello, featured with Don
Glasser's orchestra, well justifies her sobriquet, "Miss Energy". Few
vocalists bring to their profession the sound training and wide experience
that Lois has accumulated from the time she won her first musical contest
singing at the age of five years. Less than three years later, at the
age of eight, she was singing with a five piece band. In grade and
high schools, Lois continued to sing. She obliged requests at parties,
in clubs, and in church. Everywhere she went, she was asked to sing
and always did so, graciously and enthusiastically. In that latter
sense, she has changed little through the years, for Lois still brings to
every performance the same boundless excitement and genuine interest in
singing that so characterized her every entertainment bit as an amateur on
her way up. In her musical career, she has sung with such well known
bands as Will Black, Victor Lombardo, and Ray Pearl.
Although she considered a career in the field of
law, Lois could not easily shake her profound interest in music. As
she says, "My desire to be a singer with a band was so strong that after a
year at St. May-of-the-Wood College in Indiana, I decided not to return, but
to get started in the work that I wanted to make a career." Her zest
and obvious pleasure in singing, plus her comliness and charm, mark Lois
Costello as one of the really top-flight vocalists gracing the musical
circles and prove quite conclusively that by continuing in music, she was
following a career for which she was admirably suited.
The band's success is reflected in the fact that it
has been playing for over 50 years and in some 40 states,plus they had the
privilege of being the longest running "American" band to ever play
Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
For those of you that have not had the opportunity
to follow the band in recent years, we are sorry to report that Don suffered
a stroke in 1995. Ever since Lois has been leading the
orchestra. She wants everyone to know that Don is doing well and the
band continues to stay active, doing a spring tour in the Midwest and winter
tour down south. Most of the time the are appearing at the beautiful
The Club in Birmingham, Alabama. |
