BENNY GOODMAN
(May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986)
When clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman died, he was eulogized by Bill Barol in Newsweek magazine as "arguably the only white jazz player to be the best on his instrument." Known to critics and fans alike as "the King of Swing," Goodman, with the help of his arranger Fletcher Henderson, was largely responsible for the popularity of swing-style jazz during the late 1930s. As John McDonough writing in down beat put it, Goodman’s "sharp, clean, legato clarinet solos performed against the smooth, unbroken, ensemble curves of his band were the perfect musical equivalent to an optimistic era marked by speed, sophistication, and streamlining." But though Goodman made famous such swing and jazz classics such as "Sing, Sing, Sing," "Let’s Dance," and "The King Porter Stomp," he was also a brilliant classical musician and commissioned works for the clarinet from such composers as Bela Bartok and Aaron Copland.
Born May 30, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, Benjamin David Goodman was the eighth child of eleven. His father was a tailor, and the family was poor, but the Goodmans believed in education of all kinds. When his father learned that the local synagogue gave music lessons and rented instruments at extremely low rates, he sent young Benny and two of his older brothers over. The biggest boy came home with a tuba, the middle with a trumpet, and Benny—as the youngest and smallest, came home with a clarinet. He took lessons first at the synagogue and later studied at philanthropist Jane Addams’s Hull House, where he was taught by a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. By the time Goodman was thirteen, he was playing professionally and had received his first union card. He performed on the excursion boats that skimmed Lake Michigan, and in 1923 was a steady player at a local dance hall called Guyon’s Paradise.
He first began taking clarinet lessons at ten at a synagogue, after which he joined the band at Hull House, a settlement home. He made his professional debut at 12 and dropped out of high school at 14 to become a musician. At 16, in August 1925, he joined the Ben Pollack band, with which he made his first released band recordings in December 1926. His first recordings under his own name were made in January 1928. At 20, in September 1929, he left Pollack to settle in New York and work as a freelance musician, working at recording sessions, radio dates, and in the pit bands of Broadway musicals. He also made recordings under his own name with pickup bands, first reaching the charts with "He's Not Worth Your Tears" (vocal by Scrappy Lambert) on Melotone Records in January 1931. He signed toColumbia Records in the fall of 1934 and reached the Top Ten in early 1934 with "Ain't Cha Glad?" (vocal by Jack Teagarden), "Riffin' the Scotch" (vocal by Billie Holiday), and "Ol' Pappy" (vocal by Mildred Bailey), and in the spring with "I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreamin'" (vocal by Jack Teagarden).
Ben Pollack Band
When Goodman was sixteen years old, he traveled to Los Angeles, California, to play with the Ben Pollack Band. While he was with them he took part in the band’s recording sessions; in addition to clarinet solos that showed the influence of players such as Jimmie Noone and Leo Rappolo, he also dabbled with the saxophone. After approximately four years, however, Goodman left Pollack and made his living as a freelance side man, working in recording and in radio. Though he was fairly successful, he was affected by the Great Depression, and did not turn down the opportunity to play college dances with bands that he had formed because, by this time, he was supporting his widowed mother.
Benny Goodman Orchestra on “Let’s Dance”
The young clarinet player’s fortune was forever altered in late 1933, when he made the acquaintance of jazz enthusiast John Henry Hammond. Hammond encouraged Goodman to form a jazz group, and though Goodman’s intent was to use the band in a recording session for English audiences, the resulting cuts were also released by Columbia in the United States, generating a cult following. By 1934 Goodman and his band had performed in famed promoter Billy Rose’s Music Hall, and were featured on the National Broadcasting Corporation’s radio program, Let’s Dance. Though a subsequent winter tour was discouraging to Goodman and his musicians, they were suddenly introduced to enormous popularity when they hit the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. As Barol explained, "The kids went nuts, jitterbugging wildly. … The swing era was born."
After leaving Let's Dance, Goodman undertook a national tour in the summer of 1935. It was not particularly successful until he reached the West Coast, where his segment of Let's Dance had been heard three hours earlier than on the East Coast. His performance at the Palomar Ballroom near Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, was a spectacular success, remembered as the date on which the Swing Era began. He moved on to a six-month residency at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, beginning in November. He scored 15 Top Ten hits in 1936, including the chart-toppers "It's Been So Long," "Goody-Goody," "The Glory of Love," "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You," and "You Turned the Tables on Me" (all vocals by Helen Ward). He became the host of the radio series The Camel Caravan, which ran until the end of 1939, and in October 1936, the orchestra made its film debut in The Big Broadcast of 1937. The same month, Goodman began a residency at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York.
From that point on, Goodman was a musical celebrity. He went on to play successful band concerts at places such as Carnegie Hall and, in one of his most memorable sessions, the Paramount Theatre in 1937. The strains of such swing songs as "One O’Clock Jump," "Stompin’ at the Savoy," "Air Mail Special," and "Don’t Be That Way," dominated the United States’ radio waves. The clarinetist and his band also appeared in a few motion pictures. Along the way, however, Goodman made social history by becoming the first white bandleader to make a black musician part of his group when he hired pianist Teddy Wilson in 1936. With Wilson, Goodman’s core bandmembers were Gene Krupa on drums and after 1937, Lionel Hampton, another black jazz artist, on the vibraphones. According to Maclean’s magazine, Goodman refused to play concert dates in the southern states, where audiences were segregated by race.
Goodman's next number one hit, in February 1937, featured Ella Fitzgerald on vocals and was the band's first hit with new trumpeter Harry James. It was also the first of six Top Ten hits during the year, including the chart-topping "This Year's Kisses" (vocal by Margaret McCrae). In December, the band appeared in another film, Hollywood Hotel. The peak of Goodman's renown in the 1930s came on January 16, 1938, when he performed a concert at Carnegie Hall, but he went on to score 14 Top Ten hits during the year, among them the number ones "Don't Be That Way" (an instrumental) and "I Let a Song Go out of My Heart" (vocal by Martha Tilton), as well as the thrilling instrumental "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)," which later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Goodman's next number one hit, in February 1937, featured Ella Fitzgerald on vocals and was the band's first hit with new trumpeter Harry James. It was also the first of six Top Ten hits during the year, including the chart-topping "This Year's Kisses" (vocal by Margaret McCrae). In December, the band appeared in another film, Hollywood Hotel. The peak of Goodman's renown in the 1930s came on January 16, 1938, when he performed a concert at Carnegie Hall, but he went on to score 14 Top Ten hits during the year, among them the number ones "Don't Be That Way" (an instrumental) and "I Let a Song Go out of My Heart" (vocal by Martha Tilton), as well as the thrilling instrumental "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)," which later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
By 1939, Goodman had lost such major instrumentalists as Gene Krupa and Harry James, who left to found their own bands, and he faced significant competition from newly emerged bandleaders such as Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller. But he still managed to score eight Top Ten hits during the year, including the chart-topper "And the Angels Sing" (vocal by Martha Tilton), another inductee to the Grammy Hall of Fame. He returned to Columbia Records in the fall. In November, he appeared in the Broadway musical Swingin' the Dream, leading a sextet. The show was short-lived, but it provided him with the song "Darn That Dream" (vocal by Mildred Bailey), which hit number one for him in March 1940. It was the first of only three Top Ten hits he scored in 1940, his progress slowed by illness; in July he disbanded temporarily and underwent surgery for a slipped disk, not reorganizing until October. He scored two Top Ten hits in 1941, one of which was the chart-topper "There'll Be Some Changes Made" (vocal by Louise Tobin), and he returned to radio with his own show. Among his three Top Ten hits in 1942 were the number ones "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" (vocal by Peggy Lee) and the instrumental "Jersey Bounce." He also appeared in the film Syncopation, released in May.
After World War II, the combination of a decline in the popularity of the big band sound and Goodman’s health concerns prompted the clarinetist to break up his band. But as early as 1938 Goodman had begun to pursue his interest in classical clarinet; he performed works such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto in A Major for Clarinet, and asked Bartok to compose an original work for the clarinet for him. After recording the result, Contrasts, on Columbia Records in 1940, he commissioned concertos from Copland and Paul Hindemith. Goodman, however, was dissatisfied with his own skills, and in 1949 began to study with famed classical clarinetist Reginald Kell. Kell taught him a completely new approach to the instrument, but critics concluded that Goodman’s own unique style of playing had only been improved by these changes. As Maclean’s put it: "For… classical music, Goodman used the pure, literate tone that Mozart required. But when digging into… pop hits… he produced a gritty and guttural sound that would earn an F from any conservatory professor." Actually, Goodman also spent some time as a conservatory professor himself, occasionally teaching at the Juilliard School of Music.
After 1955, the year when the story of Goodman’s life was made into a feature film starring Steve Allen by Universal-International, renewed interest in his music stirred by the movie induced the clarinetist to form another jazz band. By 1956, he was performing again. In addition to prestigious dates in New York and other U.S. cities, Goodman took his music to the rest of the world. He toured the Far East from 1956 to 1957 and Europe in 1959.
Goodman continued recording into the 1980s and also achieved success as a performer of the traditional clarinet repertoire. He played and recorded with many orchestras and commissioned pieces by Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland.
Goodman continued recording into the 1980s and also achieved success as a performer of the traditional clarinet repertoire. He played and recorded with many orchestras and commissioned pieces by Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland.
One of Goodman's most significant contributions to American culture was his bringing black and white musicians together in his performing and recording groups. He presented the best musical talent, regardless of the musician's race, at a time when segregation prevailed in the music world.
After his marriage in 1941, Goodman's home was New York City. His wife Alice (John Hammond's sister) died in 1978. They had two daughters, and she had three by a previous marriage. Goodman maintained his habit of spot-performing and in 1985 made a surprise and, by all accounts, spectacular appearance at the Kool Jazz Festival in New York.
After his marriage in 1941, Goodman's home was New York City. His wife Alice (John Hammond's sister) died in 1978. They had two daughters, and she had three by a previous marriage. Goodman maintained his habit of spot-performing and in 1985 made a surprise and, by all accounts, spectacular appearance at the Kool Jazz Festival in New York.
With his withdrawal from the limelight, most observers felt that he became a deeper, less flashy player than he was in the glory years when he was fronting the country's most popular swing band. His ultimate contribution to jazz, however, is still being debated: much post-1940s jazz criticism retrospectively judged him to have been overrated relative to the era's other great clarinetist-leader, Artie Shaw, and to the great early black players of the instrument (Jimmy Noone, Johnny Dodds, Edmond Hall, and Lester Young, a tenor saxophonist who "doubled" on clarinet) and the great white traditionalist Pee Wee Russell. Esthetic evaluations are problematical at best and tend to fluctuate from era to era, but Goodman's technical mastery, burnished tone, highly individual (and influential) solo style, and undeniable swing certainly earned him a permanent place in the jazz pantheon.
Benny Goodman in Red Square, Moscow (1962)
As part of a cultural exchange program, he became the first man to tour the Soviet Union with a jazz band and was extremely well-received by the audiences. Goodman continued to perform and record for the rest of his life and accumulated many honors, including recognition by the Kennedy Center, a Grammy award for lifetime achievement, and -- a month before his death from cardiac arrest on June 13, 1986 -- an honorary doctorate of music from Columbia University.
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