Paul Tanner, atrombonist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who later played the space-age hookon the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, has died at 95.The musician's stepson, Douglas Darnell, told theAssociated Press he had died of pneumonia on Tuesday.
The last-surviving member of the Miller ensemble, healso taught jazz at UCLA and recorded with several Hollywood orchestras over along career.
But he remained best known for his work with theCalifornian rock band.
Although many assumed the eerie whistling tones onGood Vibrations were produced by a theremin - the electronic musical instrumentplayed by waving your hands around two antennae - Tanner was actually using aninstrument of his own design called the electro-theremin.
Easier to use than its Russian counterpart,Tanner's instrument was played by moving a slider up and down a diagramrepresenting a traditional piano keyboard - similar to the later Stylophone.
Tanner, who had his design built by inventor BobWhitsell, also played the instrument on other Beach Boys songs including WildHoney and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.
Of the recording sessions, he said: "They wereusually very late at night, and very long, and very good pay".
Born in Skunk Hollow, Kentucky, in 1917, he was anaccomplished musician who studied piano before taking up trombone at the age of13.
As well as his work with the Glen Miller Orchestra,with whom he toured from 1938 - 1942, he was a symphony player for conductorssuch as Andre Previn and Leopold Stokowski.
His music classes in California's UCLA wereunsurprisingly popular. The LosAngeles Times reported in 1979 that he had taught 65,000 students in 15years, and maintained a "continuous waiting list".
He recorded a solo album, Music for Heavenly Bodies,with his electro-theremin, and provided sound effects to several interstellarTV series, including Lost In Space and My Favorite Martian.
But he considered the instrument a "toy"and sold it to a hospital to use in hearing tests by the late 1960s.
Source: BBC
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