My first exposure to this classic tune was not listening to Glenn Miller but rather in high school pep band. We just thought it was a fun, uptempo piece to play. Listening to Miller's band play it on this recording gives a real sense of how they not only had fun playing it, but also how they really used dynamic contrast to keep the repetitive nature of the tune from becoming boring.
In particular, I enjoyed watching the video clip of them playing it with the faces of the different players as the got quieter and quieter in each repetition, the trombones striking poses from side to side and then everyone kicking loose when the trumpets come back in with the loud statement of the theme. The piano player looked like he was going to fall off his chair. I know it was staged but it really added to the entertainment value of the clip.
As the text pointed out in Chapter 1, this is really in 12 bar blues form, even though it doesn't sound much like John Lee Hooker.
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