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. It began its existence in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit-area groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. It was a co-operative organization, fronted for the first few years by violinist Hank Biagini, although the eventual leader, saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963) was from the very beginning "first among equals." The band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, shortly after it was supposed to play an engagement at Casa Loma in Toronto, which was then operating as a hotel. Ironically, as lead trombonist Billy Rauch noted, the band never actually played the Casa Loma. 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