Thursday, May 30, 2013

Happy Birthday, Benny Goodman

Clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman was born on May 30, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois. Goodman was, as critic William Ruhlmann says, "the first celebrated bandleader of the Swing Era ..."

Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America, and his January 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City 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." Goodman's bands also launched the careers of many major names in jazz, including Chrlie Christian, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, and Lionel Hampton. During the age of segregation, Goodman also led one of the first well-known racially-integrated jazz groups.

Goodman's band can be heard playing "Sing Sing Sing" from that Carnegie Hall concert here:



In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert - 1938 (Columbia), which, according to Lyons, "catches the band at its peak." The album is available on CD from Amazon.com.


Robert
http://www.facebook.com/corejazz?sk=wall