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Benny Goodman
from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin David Goodman
Born	May 30, 1909(1909-05-30)
Origin	Chicago, Illinois
Died	June 13, 1986 (aged 77)
Genre(s)	Swing, Big band
Occupation(s)	Musician, Bandleader, Songwriter
Instrument(s)	Clarinet
Years active	1926-1986
Label(s)	Bluebird, Columbia, Capitol, Decca, Musicmasters
Website	BennyGoodman.com
Notable instrument(s)
clarinet

Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman,^[1] (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician and clarinetist, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman".

Contents 1 Childhood and early years 2 Career 2.1 Palomar Ballroom engagement 2.2 Carnegie Hall concert 2.3 Charlie Christian 2.4 Beyond swing 2.4.1 Be bop, Cool Jazz 2.4.2 Forays into the Classical Repertoire 2.4.3 Touring with "Satchmo" 2.4.4 The movies 3 Personality and Influence on American Popular Music 4 John Hammond and Alice Goodman 5 Later years 6 Discography 7 Samples 8 References 9 External links

Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from Poland who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father, David Goodman, was a tailor from Warsaw, his mother, Dora Rezinski, was from Kaunas. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland and moved to Chicago before Benny was born.^[2]

When Benny was 10, his father signed Benny and two older brothers up for music lessons at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue. The next year he joined the boys club band at Jane Addams's Hull House, where he received lessons from the director James Sylvester. Also important during this period were his two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp.^[3]

His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo, and Jimmy Noone.^[4] Goodman learned quickly and became a strong player at an early age. He was soon playing professionally while still 'in short pants', playing clarinet in various bands.

When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, with which he made his first recordings in 1926.^[5] He made his first record under his own name two years later. Remaining with Pollack through 1929, Goodman recorded with both the regular Pollack band as well as smaller groups drawn from the orchestra. The side sessions produced scores of often hot sides recorded for the various dime-store record labels under a bewildering array of group names, such as Mills' Musical Clowns, Goody's Good Timers, The Hotsy Totsy Gang, Jimmy Backen's Toe Ticklers, Dixie Daisies, and Kentucky Grasshoppers.

Goodman's father, David, was a working-class immigrant about whom Benny said (interview, 'Downbeat', Feb 8, 1956); "...Pop worked in the stockyards, shoveling lard in its unrefined state. He had those boots, and he'd come home at the end of the day exhausted, stinking to high heaven, and when he walked in it made me sick. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand the idea of Pop every day standing in that stuff, shoveling it around".

On December 9, 1929 David Goodman was killed in a traffic accident shortly after Benny joined the Pollack band and had urged his father to retire, now that he (Benny) and his brother (Harry) were doing well as professional musicians. According to James Lincoln Collier, "Pop looked Benny in the eye and said, 'Benny, you take care of yourself, I'll take care of myself.'" Collier continues: "It was an unhappy choice. Not long afterwards, as he was stepping down from a street car — according to one story — he was struck by a car. He never regained consciousness and died in the hospital the next day. It was a bitter blow to the family, and it haunted Benny to the end that his beloved father had not lived to see the enormous success he, and some of the others, made of themselves. The years that the immigrant David Goodman had sweated in the stockyards and the garment lofts had paid off in a way he could never have possibly imagined, and he never got that reward."^[6] "Benny described his father's death as 'the saddest thing that ever happened in our family.'"^[7]

Goodman left for New York City and became a successful session musician during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He made a reputation as a solid player who was prepared and reliable. He played with the nationally known bands of Ben Selvin, Red Nichols, Isham Jones, and Ted Lewis. He also recorded musical soundtracks for movie shorts; some fans are convinced that Benny Goodman's clarinet can be heard on the soundtrack of One A. M., a Charlie Chaplin comedy re-released to theaters in 1934.

In 1934 Goodman auditioned for NBC's Let's Dance(sponsered by Ritz crackers), a well regarded radio program that featured various styles of dance music. Since he needed new arrangements every week for the show, his agent, John Hammond, suggested that he purchase jazz charts from Fletcher Henderson, an African-American musician from Atlanta who had New York's most popular African-American band in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Goodman, a wise businessman, caught Henderson in 1929 when the stock market crashed. He purchased all of Henderson's song books, and hired Henderson's band members to teach his musicians how to play the music.

The combination of Goodman's solid clarinet playing, the Henderson charts, and the well-rehearsed band made Goodman a rising star in the mid-1930s, earning him the title "King of Swing." In early 1935, Goodman and his band were one of three bands featured on Let's Dance. His radio broadcasts from New York aired too late to attract a large East Coast audience. However, the timeslot gave him an avid following on the West Coast, and a wildly enthusiastic crowd greeted Goodman for the first time in California. He and his band remained on Let's Dance until May of that year when a strike forced the cancellation of the radio show.

With nothing else to do, the band set out on a tour of America. However, at a number of engagements the band received a hostile reception, as many in the audiences expected smoother, sweeter jazz as opposed to the "hot" style that Goodman's band was accustomed to playing. By August of 1935, Goodman found himself with a band that was nearly broke, disillusioned and ready to quit. It was at this moment that everything for the band and jazz changed.

The last scheduled stop of the tour came on August 21, 1935 at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. Goodman and his band were scheduled for a three-week engagement. The Palomar provided the ideal environment, as there was a huge dance floor with a capacity of 4,000 couples. On hand for the engagement were famed musicians Gene Krupa, Bunny Berigan, and Helen Ward. The first night, Goodman and his band cautiously began playing recently purchased stock arrangements. The reaction was, at best, tepid. Seeing the reaction, Krupa said "If we're gonna die, Benny, let's die playing our own thing." ^[8] As George Spink states:

At the beginning of the next set, Goodman told the band to put aside the stock arrangements and called for charts by Fletcher Henderson and other swing arrangers who were writing for the band. When trumpeter Bunny Berigan played his solos on Henderson’s versions of "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "King Porter Stomp," the Palomar dancers cheered like crazy and exploded with no applause! They gathered around the bandstand to listen to this new music. ^[8]

Over the nights of the engagement, a new dance labeled the "Jitterbug" captured the dancers on the floor, and a new craze had begun.^[9] Onlookers gathered around the edges of the ballroom floor. Within days of the opening, newspapers around the country were headlining stories about the new phenomenon that had started at the Palomar. Goodman was finally a nationally known star, and the Swing Era began, led by Goodman. Following this the big band era exploded.

In bringing jazz to Carnegie, [Benny Goodman was], in effect, smuggling American contraband into the halls of European high culture, and Goodman and his 15 men pull[ed] it off with the audacity and precision of Ocean's Eleven.^[10]

In late 1937, Goodman's publicist Wynn Nathanson attempted a publicity stunt in the form of suggesting Goodman and his band should play Carnegie Hall in New York City. "Benny Goodman was initially hesitant about the concert, fearing for the worst; however, when his film Hollywood Hotel opened to rave reviews and giant lines, he threw himself into the work. He gave up several dates and insisted on holding rehearsals inside Carnegie Hall to familiarize the band with the lively acoustics."^[11]

The concert was scheduled for January 16, 1938. It sold out weeks before, with the capacity 2,760 seats going for the top price of US$2.75 a seat, for the time a very high price. Once again, initial crowd reaction, though polite, was tepid. Some of the earlier sets, including a jam session featuring members of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands as guests, did not go as well as hoped. As the concert went on, things livened up. Some of the later trio and quartet numbers were well-received, and a vocal on "Loch Lomond" by Martha Tilton, though nothing special, provoked five curtain calls and cries for an encore. The encore forced Goodman to make his only audience announcement for the night, stating that they had no encore prepared but that Martha would return shortly with another number.

By the time the band got to the climactic piece "Sing, Sing, Sing," success of the night was assured. Bettering the commercial 12-inch record, this live performance featured playing by tenor saxophonist Babe Russin, trumpeter Harry James, and then Benny Goodman, backed by drummer Gene Krupa in accompaniment. But the really unforgettable moment came when Goodman finished his solo and unexpectedly tossed the ball to pianist Jess Stacy. "At the Carnegie Hall concert, after the usual theatrics, Jess Stacy was allowed to solo and, given the venue, what followed was appropriate. Used to just playing rhythm on the tune, he was unprepared for a turn in the spotlight, but what came out of his fingers was a graceful, impressionistic marvel with classical flourishes, yet still managed to swing. It was the best thing he ever did, and it's ironic that such a layered, nuanced performance came at the end of such a chaotic, bombastic tune."^[12]

This concert has been regarded by some as the most significant in jazz history. After years of work by musicians from all over the country, jazz had finally been accepted by mainstream audiences. While the big band era would not last for much longer, it was from this point forward that the ground work for multiple other genres of popular music was laid.

Recordings were made of this concert, but even by the technology of the day the equipment used was not of the finest quality. Acetate recordings of the concert were made, and aluminum studio masters were also cut.

The recording was produced by Albert Marx as a special gift for his wife, Helen Ward and a second set for Benny. He contracted Artists Recording Studio to make 2 sets. Artists Recording only had 2 turntables so they farmed out the second set to Raymond Scott's recording studio. [...] It was Benny's sister-in-law who found the recordings in Benny's apartment [in 1950] and brought them to Benny's attention.^[13]

In early 1998, the aluminum masters were rediscovered and a new CD set of the concert was released based on these masters.

Pianist/arranger Mary Lou Williams[8] was a good friend of Columbia records producer John Hammond's and Benny Goodman's. She first suggested to John Hammond that he see Charlie Christian.[9]

Charlie Christian was playing at the Ritz Cafe in Oklahoma City where [...] John Hammond heard him in 1939. Hammond recommended him to Benny Goodman, but the band leader wasn't interested. The idea of an electrified guitar didn't appeal, and Goodman didn't care for Christian's flashy style of dressing. Reportedly, Hammond personally installed Christian onstage during a break in a Goodman concert in Beverly Hills. Irritated to see Christian among the band, Goodman struck up "Rose Room," not expecting the guitarist to know the tune. What followed amazed everyone who heard the 45-minute performance.[10]

Charlie was a hit on the electric guitar and remained in the Benny Goodman Sextet for two years (1939-1941). He wrote many of the group's head arrangements (some of which Goodman took credit for) and was an inspiration to all. The sextet made him famous and provided him with a steady income while Charlie worked on legitimizing, popularizing, revolutionizing, and standardizing the electric guitar as a jazz instrument.[11]

Christian eventually stayed in New York City, jamming with bop musicians at Minton's in Harlem. "Charlie impressed them all by improvising long lines that emphasized off beats, and by using altered chords."[12] Charlie Christian died in Staten Island, March 2, 1942 of tuberculosis. Helping to broaden the form of jazz, Benny Goodman gave the nascent talent a huge start. Charlie Christian's recordings and rehearsal dubs he made at Columbia records with Benny Goodman in the early forties are widely known and widely respected.

Goodman continued his meteoric rise throughout the late 1930s with his big band, his trio and quartet, and a sextet. He influenced almost every jazz musician who played clarinet after him. However, in time the movement in jazz that he ignited in 1935 began to fade. By the mid-1940s, big bands lost a lot of their popularity. There were several reasons for this decline. In 1941, ASCAP had a licensing war with music publishers. In 1942 to 1944 and 1948, the major musicians union went on strike against the major record labels in the United States, and singers took the spot in popularity that the big bands once enjoyed.^[14] Also, by the late 1940s, swing was no longer the dominant mode of jazz musicians.^[15]

By the 1940s, jazz musicians were borrowing some of the more advanced ideas that classical musicians had been using. Be bop and then later cool jazz were beginning to be heard. The recordings Goodman made in the bop style for Capitol Records were highly praised by jazz critics. When Goodman was starting a bebop band, he hired Buddy Greco, Zoot Sims, Wardell Gray and a few other modern players.^[16]

Pianist/arranger Mary Lou Williams had been a favorite of Benny's since she first appeared on the national scene in 1936 [...]. [A]s Goodman warily approached the music of [Charlie] Parker and [Dizzy] Gillespie, he turned to Williams for musical guidance. [...] Pianist Mel Powell was the first to introduce the new music to Benny in 1945, and kept him abreast to what was happening around 52nd Street.^[16]

Goodman enjoyed the new music of bebop and cool jazz that was beginning to arrive in the nineteen forties. When Goodman heard Thelonious Monk, a celebrated pianist and accompanist to bop players Parker, Gillespie and Kenny Clarke, he remarked, "I like it, I like that very much. I like the piece and I like the way he played it. [...] I think he's got a sense of humor and he's got some good things there."^[16]

'Benny had heard this Swedish clarinet player named Stan Hasselgard playing bebop, and he loved it [...] [.]' 'So he started a bebop band. But after a year and a half, he became frustrated. He eventually reformed his band and went back to playing Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Benny was a swing player and decided to concentrate on what he does best.^[17]

By 1953, Goodman completely changed his mind about bebop. "Maybe bop has done more to set music back for years than anything [...] Basically it's all wrong. It's not even knowing the scales. [...] Bop was mostly publicity and people figuring angles."^[18]

After his bop period, Goodman furthered his interest in classical music written for the clarinet, and frequently met with top classical clarinetists of the day as well.

In 1949, when he was 40, Goodman decided to study with Reginald Kell, one of the world's leading classical clarinetists. To do so, he had to change his entire technique: instead of holding the mouthpiece between his front teeth and lower lip, as he had done since he first took a clarinet in hand 30 years earlier, Goodman learned to adjust his embouchure to the use of both lips and even to use new fingering techniques. He had his old finger calluses removed and started to learn how to play his clarinet again--almost from scratch.^[19]

Goodman commissioned and premiered works by leading composers for clarinet and symphony orchestra that are now part of the standard repertoire, namely Contrasts by Béla Bartók, Clarinet Concerto No. 2 Op. 115 by Malcolm Arnold and Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto. While Leonard Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs was commissioned for Woody Herman's big band, it was premiered by Goodman. While the Ebony Concerto by Igor Stravinsky is generally also thought to be written for Goodman, it was actually also written for Woody Herman in 1945, and premiered by him in 1946. "Many years later Stravinsky made another recording, this time with Benny Goodman as the soloist."^[20] He twice recorded Mozart's clarinet quintet, once in the late 1930s with the Budapest String Quartet and once in the middle 1950s with the Boston Symphony Orchestra String Quartet; he also recorded the clarinet concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, and Carl Nielsen.^[21]

Other recordings of classical repertoire by Goodman are^[22]:

• Premiere Rhapsodie for Clarinet by Claude Debussy
• Sonata no. 2 in E flat by Johannes Brahms
• Rondo from Grand Duo Concertant in E flat from Carl Maria von Weber, and
• An arrangement by Simeon Bellison of van Beethoven's Variations on a theme from Mozart's Don Giovanni

After forays outside of swing, Goodman started a new band in 1953. According to Donald Clarke, this was not a happy time for Goodman.

In 1953 Goodman re-formed his classic band for an expensive tour with Louis Armstrong’s All Stars that turned into a famous disaster. He managed to insult Armstrong at the beginning; then he was appalled at the vaudeville aspects of Louis’s act [...] a contradiction of everything Goodman stood for.^[23]

Benny Goodman's band appeared as a specialty act in major musical features, including The Big Broadcast of 1937, Hollywood Hotel (1938), Syncopation (1942), The Powers Girl (1942), Stage Door Canteen (1943), The Gang's All Here (1943), Sweet and Lowdown (1944) and A Song Is Born (1948). Goodman's only starring feature was Sweet and Low Down (1944).

Goodman's success story was told in the 1955 motion picture The Benny Goodman Story^[24] with Steve Allen and Donna Reed. A Universal-International production, it was a follow up to 1954's successful The Glenn Miller Story. The screenplay was heavily fictionalized (Benny confessed that he and his wife would look at the finished film and laugh through it), but the music was the real drawing card. Many of Goodman's professional colleagues appear in the film, including Ben Pollack. Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton. and Harry James.

Goodman was regarded by some as a demanding taskmaster, by others an arrogant and eccentric martinet. Many musicians spoke of "The Ray"^[25] , Goodman's trademark glare that he bestowed on a musician who failed to perform to his demanding standards. Guitarist Allan Reuss incurred the maestro's displeasure on one occasion, and Goodman relegated him to the rear of the bandstand, where his contribution would be totally drowned out by the other musicians. Vocalists Anita O'Day and Helen Forrest spoke bitterly of their experiences singing with Goodman.^[26] "The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years," said Forrest. "When I look back, they seem like a life sentence." He could also be incredibly self-absorbed; it is reported that when eating an egg onto which a ketchup bottle cap had fallen, Goodman simply ate around it.^[10] At the same time, there are reports that he privately funded several college educations and was sometimes very generous, though always secretly. When a friend asked him why one time, he reportedly said, "Well, if they knew about it, everyone would come to me with their hand out."^[26]

Some suggest that Elvis Presley had the same success with rock and roll that Goodman achieved with jazz and swing. Both helped bring black music to a young, white audience. However Goodman is arguably the most important figure in popular music in the twentieth century. Without Goodman there would not have been a swing era. It is true that many of Goodman's arrangements had been played for years before by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. While Goodman publicly acknowledged his debt to Henderson, many young white swing fans had never heard Henderson's band. While most consider Goodman a jazz innovator, others maintain his main strength was his perfectionism and drive. Goodman was a virtuoso clarinetist and amongst the most technically proficient jazz clarinetists of all time.

As far as I'm concerned, what he did in those days—and they were hard days, in 1937—made it possible for Negroes to have their chance in baseball and other fields. Lionel Hampton on Benny Goodman[27]

Goodman is also responsible for a significant step in racial integration in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by the Jim Crow laws. Benny Goodman broke with tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him and drummer Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman Trio. In 1936, he added Lionel Hampton on vibes to form the Benny Goodman Quartet; in 1939 he added pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian to his band and small ensembles, who played with him until his untimely death from tuberculosis less than three years later. To give an understanding of American history at this time, Goodman's integration of popular music happened ten years before Jackie Robinson became the first black American to enter Major League Baseball. "[Goodman's] popularity was such that he could remain financially viable without touring the South, where he would have been subject to arrest for violating Jim Crow laws."^[28] According to Jazz by Ken Burns, when someone asked him why he "played with that nigger" (referring to Teddy Wilson), Goodman replied, "I'll knock you out if you use that word around me again".

One of Benny Goodman's closest friends off and on, from the 1930s onward was celebrated Columbia records producer John H. Hammond.

John Henry Hammond II was born December 15, 1910 in an eight-story mansion in New York City. He was the son of James Henry Hammond, a very successful businessman and lawyer, and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane, an heir to the Sloan Furniture and - as a granddaughter of William Henry Vanderbilt - to the Vanderbilt fortunes. John H. Hammond II attended the esteemed Hotchkiss Prep School and Yale University.^[29]

Hammond and Goodman were so close that Hammond influenced Goodman's move from RCA records to the newly created Columbia records in 1939.^[30] Benny Goodman dated John H. Hammond's sister, Alice Frances Hammond (? - 1978) for three months. They married on March 14, 1942. They had two daughters, Benjie and Rachel.^[31] Both daughters studied music to some degree, though neither became the musical prodigy Goodman was. Hammond had encouraged Goodman to integrate his band, having persuaded him to employ pianist Teddy Wilson. He all but forced Goodman to audition Charlie Christian, Goodman believing no one would listen to an electric guitarist. But Hammond's tendency to interfere in the musical affairs of Goodman's and other bands led to Goodman pulling away from him. In 1953 they had another falling-out during Goodman's ill-fated tour with Louis Armstrong, which was produced by John Hammond.^[32] Goodman appeared on a 1975 PBS salute to Hammond but remained at a distance. In the 1980s, following the death of Alice Goodman, John Hammond and Benny Goodman, both by then elderly, reconciled. On June 25, 1985, Goodman appeared at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City for "A Tribute to John Hammond".^[33]

Goodman continued to play on records and in small groups. One exception to this pattern was a collaboration with George Benson in the 1970s. The two had met when they taped a PBS salute to John Hammond and re-created some of the famous Goodman-Charlie Christian duets.^[34] Benson later appeared on several tracks of a Goodman album released as "Seven Come Eleven." In general Goodman continued to play in the swing style he was most known for. He did, however, practice and perform classical music clarinet pieces and commissioned some pieces for the clarinet. Periodically he would organize a new band and play a jazz festival or go on an international tour.

Despite increasing health problems, he continued to play the clarinet until his death from a heart attack in New York City in 1986 at the age of 77. A longtime resident of Pound Ridge, New York, Benny Goodman is interred in the Long Ridge Cemetery, Stamford, Connecticut. The same year, Goodman was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[35] Benny Goodman's musical papers were donated to Yale University after his death.^[3]

• A Jazz Holiday (1928, Decca)
• Benny Goodman and the Giants of Swing (1929, Prestige)
• BG and Big Tea in NYC (1929, GRP)
• Swinging '34 Vols. 1 & 2 (1934, Melodean)
• Sing, Sing, Sing (1935, Bluebird)
• The Birth of Swing (1935, Bluebird)
• Original Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet Sessions, Vol. 1: After You've Gone (1935, Bluebird)
• Stomping at the Savoy (1935, Bluebird)
• Air Play (1936, Doctor Jazz)
• Roll 'Em, Vol. 1 (1937, Columbia)
• Roll 'Em, Vol. 2 (1937, CBS)
• From Spirituals to Swing (1938, Vanguard)
• Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (1938, Columbia)
• Carnegie Hall Concert Vols. 1, 2, & 3 (Live) (1938, Columbia)
• Ciribiribin (Live) (1939, Giants of Jazz)
• Swingin' Down the Lane (Live) (1939, Giants of Jazz)
• Featuring Charlie Christian (1939, Columbia)
• Eddie Sauter Arrangements (1940, Columbia)
• Swing Into Spring (1941, Columbia)
• Undercurrent Blues (1947, Blue Note)
• Swedish Pastry (1948, Dragon)
• Sextet (1950, Columbia)
• BG in Hi-fi (1954, Capitol)
• Peggy Lee Sings with Benny Goodman (1957, Harmony)
• Benny in Brussels Vols. 1 & 2 (1958, Columbia)
• In Stockholm 1959 (1959, Phontastic)
• The Benny Goodman Treasure Chest (1959, MGM)
• The King Swings Star Line
• Pure Gold (1992)
• 1935-1938 (1998)
• Portrait of Benny Goodman (Portrait Series) (1998)
• Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert '38 (1998)
• Bill Dodge All-star Recording (1999)
• 1941-1955 His Orchestra and His (1999)
• Live at Carnegie Hall (1999)
• Carnegie Hall: The Complete Concert (2006) Remastered again

• of "And the Angels Sing" by Benny Goodman and Martha Tilton, a legendary swing recording that helped keep Goodman's career afloat as the band members departed.

• Benny Goodman official site
• Benny Goodman Biography at PBS Kids
• Benny Goodman scores (a portion of the musician's estate) in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Peforming Arts.
• Benny Goodman papers (the bulk of the musician's estate) in Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University
• Saxophone player Teddy Edwards recounts his memories of working with Benny Goodman, on ArtistInterviews.eu