Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing".
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman
May 30, 1909
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
June 13, 1986 (aged 77)
New York City, U.S.
- Musician
- bandleader
Clarinet
1926–1986
From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, 1938, is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music."[1]
Goodman's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his trio and quartet. He continued performing up until the end of his life while also pursuing an interest in classical music.
Early years[edit]
Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman, came to the United States in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor.[2] His mother, Dora Grisinsky,[2] came from Kaunas. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Goodman's birth. With little income and a large family, they moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood, an overcrowded slum near railroad yards and factories that was populated by German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants.[3]
Money was a constant problem. On Sundays, his father took the children to free band concerts in Douglass Park, which was the first time Goodman experienced live professional performances. To give his children some skills and an appreciation for music, his father enrolled ten-year-old Goodman and two of his brothers in music lessons, from 1919, at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue.[4] Benny also received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist and Chicago Symphony member, Franz Schoepp.[5][6][7] During the next year Goodman joined the boys club band at Hull House, where he received lessons from director James Sylvester. By joining the band, he was entitled to spend two weeks at a summer camp near Chicago. It was the only time he could get away from his bleak neighborhood.[3] At 13, he got his first union card.[8] He performed on Lake Michigan excursion boats, and in 1923 played at Guyon's Paradise, a local dance hall.[9]
In the summer of 1923, he met cornetist and composer Bix Beiderbecke.[5] He attended the Lewis Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1924 as a high-school sophomore and played clarinet in a dance hall band. When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar,[10] which Goodman called "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family".[3]: 42
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists who worked in Chicago, such as Jimmie Noone,[11] Johnny Dodds, and Leon Roppolo. He learned quickly, becoming a strong player at an early age, and was soon playing in bands. He made his professional debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on the West Side of Chicago. He entered Harrison Technical High School in Chicago in 1922. At fourteen he became a member of the musicians' union and worked in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke.[12] Two years later he joined the Ben Pollack Orchestra and made his first recordings, in 1926.[11]
From sideman to bandleader[edit]
Goodman moved to New York City and became a session musician for radio, Broadway musicals, and in studios.[13] In addition to clarinet, he sometimes played alto saxophone and baritone saxophone.[11] His first recording pressed to disc (Victor 20394) occurred on December 9, 1926, in Chicago. The session resulted in the song "When I First Met Mary", which also included Glenn Miller, Harry Goodman, and Ben Pollack.[14] In a Victor recording session on March 21, 1928, he played alongside Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Joe Venuti in the All-Star Orchestra directed by Nathaniel Shilkret.[15][16][17] He played with the bands of Red Nichols, Ben Selvin, Ted Lewis, and Isham Jones and recorded for Brunswick under the name Benny Goodman's Boys, a band that featured Glenn Miller. In 1928, Goodman and Miller wrote "Room 1411", Miller's first known composition, which was released as a Brunswick 78.[18]
He reached the charts for the first time in January 1931 with "He's Not Worth Your Tears", featuring a vocal by Scrappy Lambert for Melotone. After signing with Columbia in 1934, he had top ten hits with "Ain't Cha Glad?" and "I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreamin'" sung by Jack Teagarden, "Ol' Pappy" sung by Mildred Bailey, and "Riffin' the Scotch" sung by Billie Holiday. An invitation to play at the Billy Rose Music Hall led to his creation of an orchestra for the four-month engagement. The orchestra recorded "Moonglow", which became a number one hit and was followed by the Top Ten hits "Take My Word" and "Bugle Call Rag".[13]
NBC hired Goodman for the radio program Let's Dance.[13] John Hammond asked Fletcher Henderson if he wanted to write arrangements for Goodman, and Henderson agreed.[3]: 114 During the Depression, Henderson disbanded his orchestra because he was in debt.[19] Goodman hired Henderson's band members to teach his musicians how to play the music.[20]
Goodman's band was one of three to perform on Let's Dance, playing arrangements by Henderson along with hits such as "Get Happy" and "Limehouse Blues" by Spud Murphy.[21]
Goodman's portion of the program was broadcast too late at night to attract a large audience on the east coast. He and his band remained on Let's Dance until May of that year when a strike by employees of the series' sponsor, Nabisco, forced the cancellation of the radio show. An engagement was booked at Manhattan's Roosevelt Grill filling in for Guy Lombardo, but the audience expected "sweet" music and Goodman's band was unsuccessful.[22]
Goodman spent six months performing on Let's Dance, and during that time he recorded six more Top Ten hits for Columbia.[13]
