Casa Loma Orchestra

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The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American swing band active from 1927 to 1963. It did not tour after 1950 but continued to record as a studio group.

The band was organized in 1927, in Detroit, by saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963), with help from Jean Goldkette. Originally known as the Orange Blossoms, the band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, when it was the house band at Casa Loma in Toronto, which was then operating as a hotel.

From 1929 until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands, featuring trombonist Pee Wee Hunt, trumpeter Frank L. Ryerson, trumpeter Sonny Dunham, clarinetist Clarence Hutchenrider, drummer Tony Briglia, and singer Kenny Sargent. Its arrangers were Gene Gifford, who also composed much of the band's book, and Salvador "Tutti" Camarata. Horace Henderson also arranged some numbers for the band. Its hits included "Casa Loma Stomp," "No Name Jive," "Maniac's Ball" and the band's theme, '"Smoke Rings." Part of the reason for the band's decline in popularity after 1935 is that other big bands included in their books hard-swinging numbers which emulated the hot Casa Loma style.

In the late 1930s Gray took top billing. In the 1940s the band featured guitarist Herb Ellis, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, and cornetist Red Nichols.

Jazz historians George A. Borgman and Bill Cahill are currently researching and writing a book about the orchestra.