Glen Gray & His Orchestra

Glen Gray Knoblauch, better known as Glen Gray, (6/7/00 – 8/23/63) was a well-known jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.

When he was 13 years old, Gray organized a group known as Spike’s Jazz Band. A graduate of Roanoke High School, he later attended Illinois Wesleyan University but left to work as a bill clerk for the Santa Fe Railroad. In the late 1920s Gray was playing saxophone in the Orange Blossoms Band. After performing at the Casa Loma Hotel in Toronto for eight months, the group incorporated in 1929 as a co-op in NYC as The Casa Loma Orchestra and began recording.