Benjamin David Goodman was born on May 30, 1909, and died on June 13, 1986. He was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing." His orchestra was successful in business.

From 1935 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."

Goodman's bands helped start the careers of many jazz musicians. During a time when racial segregation was common, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his trio and quartet. He continued performing until his death while also exploring an interest in classical music.

Early years

Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman, arrived in the United States in 1892 from Warsaw, which was part of Poland at that time, and became a tailor. His mother, Dora Grisinsky, came from Kaunas. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Goodman was born. Because they had little money and a large family, they lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood, a very crowded area near railroad tracks and factories. This neighborhood was home to many German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and Jewish people.

Goodman grew up in poverty, and money was always a problem for his family. On Sundays, his father took the children to free band concerts in Douglas Park. This was the first time Goodman saw live professional performances. His father believed music could help his sons avoid poverty and stay out of trouble. In 1919, he enrolled ten-year-old Benny and two of his brothers in free music lessons at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue. His older brothers received a tuba and a trumpet, while Benny, the youngest, got a clarinet. Benny also took two years of clarinet lessons from Franz Schoepp, a trained clarinetist who played in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The next year, Goodman joined the boys' club band at Hull House, where he learned from the band director, James Sylvester. Joining the band gave him the chance to attend a summer camp near Chicago, his only opportunity to leave his difficult neighborhood. At age 13, he earned his first union card and played music on excursion boats on Lake Michigan. In 1923, he performed at Guyon's Paradise, a local dance hall.

In the summer of 1923, Goodman met Bix Beiderbecke, a cornetist and composer. In 1924, he attended the Lewis Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) as a high school sophomore and played clarinet in a dance hall band. When he was 17, his father was killed by a car after stepping off a streetcar. Goodman called this event "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family."

Career

Benny Goodman was influenced by New Orleans jazz clarinetists who played in Chicago, such as Jimmie Noone, Johnny Dodds, and Leon Roppolo. He learned quickly and became a skilled musician at a young age. He soon joined bands and made his professional debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on Chicago’s West Side. In 1922, he entered Harrison Technical High School in Chicago. At fourteen, he joined the musicians’ union and worked in a band that included Bix Beiderbecke. In 1926, he joined the Ben Pollack Orchestra and made his first recordings.

Goodman moved to New York City and worked as a session musician for radio, Broadway musicals, and recording studios. He played the clarinet, as well as the alto saxophone and baritone saxophone. His first recording, Victor 20394, was made on December 9, 1926, in Chicago. The session produced the song “When I First Met Mary,” which also included Glenn Miller, Harry Goodman, and Ben Pollack. In a Victor recording session on March 21, 1928, he played with Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Joe Venuti in the All-Star Orchestra led by Nathaniel Shilkret. He also played with the bands of Red Nichols, Ben Selvin, Ted Lewis, and Isham Jones. He recorded for Brunswick under the name Benny Goodman’s Boys, a band that included Glenn Miller. In 1928, Goodman and Miller wrote “Room 1411,” Miller’s first known composition, which was released as a Brunswick 78.

Goodman 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, including “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 perform at the Billy Rose Music Hall led to the creation of an orchestra for a 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.”

NBC hired Goodman for the radio program Let’s Dance. John Hammond asked Fletcher Henderson if he wanted to write arrangements for Goodman, and Henderson agreed. During the Depression, Henderson disbanded his orchestra because of debt. Goodman hired Henderson’s musicians to teach his band how to play the music.

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.

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 to replace Guy Lombardo, but the audience expected “sweet” music and Goodman’s band was unsuccessful.

Goodman performed on Let’s Dance for six months and recorded six more Top Ten hits for Columbia during that time.

On July 31, 1935, “King Porter Stomp” was released with “Sometimes I’m Happy” on the B-side, both arranged by Henderson and recorded on July 1. In Pittsburgh at the Stanley Theater, some audience members danced in the aisles. These arrangements had little impact on the tour until August 19 at McFadden’s Ballroom in Oakland, California. Goodman and his band, which included trumpeter Bunny Berigan, drummer Gene Krupa, and singer Helen Ward, were met by a large crowd of young dancers who cheered the music they had heard on Let’s Dance. Newspaper columnist Herb Caen wrote, “from the first note, the place was in an uproar.” One night later, at Pismo Beach, the show was a flop, and the band thought the overwhelming reception in Oakland had been a fluke.

The next night, August 21, 1935, at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, Goodman and his band began a three-week engagement. On top of the Let’s Dance airplay, Al Jarvis had been playing Goodman’s records on KFWB radio. Goodman started the evening with stock arrangements, but after an indifferent response, he began the second set with arrangements by Fletcher Henderson and Spud Murphy. According to Willard Alexander, the band’s booking agent, Krupa said, “If we’re gonna die, Benny, let’s die playing our own thing.” The crowd broke into cheers and applause. News reports spread word of the exciting music and enthusiastic dancing. The Palomar engagement was such a marked success that it is often described as the beginning of the swing era. According to Donald Clarke, “It is clear in retrospect that the Swing Era had been waiting to happen, but it was Goodman and his band that touched it off.”

The reception of American swing was less enthusiastic in Europe. British author J. C. Squire filed a complaint with BBC Radio to demand it stop playing Goodman’s music, which he called “an awful series of jungle noises which can hearten no man.” Germany’s Nazi party banned jazz from the radio, claiming it was part of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the culture. Italy’s fascist government banned the broadcast of any music composed or played by Jews, which they said threatened “the flower of our race, the youth.”

In November 1935, Goodman accepted an invitation to play in Chicago at the Joseph Urban Room at the Congress Hotel. His stay there was extended to six months, and his popularity was cemented by nationwide radio broadcasts over NBC affiliate stations. While in Chicago, the band recorded “If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight),” “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” and “Goody Goody.” Goodman also played three concerts produced by Chicago socialite and jazz aficionado Helen Oakley. These “Rhythm Club” concerts at the Congress Hotel included sets in which Goodman and Krupa sat in with Fletcher Henderson’s band, perhaps the first racially integrated big band appearing before a paying audience in the United States.

Later years

He played on records and in small groups. In the early 1970s, he worked together with George Benson after they met during a PBS tribute to John Hammond, playing some of Goodman's old songs with Charlie Christian. Benson was on Goodman's album Seven Come Eleven. Goodman played swing music, but he also practiced and performed classical pieces and had new ones written for the clarinet. In 1960, he performed Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with conductor Alfredo Antonini at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City. Even though he had health issues, he kept performing. His final concert was six days before he died. Goodman died on June 13, 1986, from a heart attack while resting at his apartment in Manhattan House.

Personal life

John Hammond, a producer at Columbia Records, was one of Benny Goodman's closest friends. He helped Goodman move from Victor Records to Columbia Records. Goodman married Alice Frances Hammond Duckworth, John Hammond's sister, on March 20, 1942. Alice was born in 1905 and died in 1978. The couple had two daughters: Rachel, who became a concert pianist, and Benji, who became a cellist. Goodman also raised Alice's three daughters from her earlier marriage to Arthur Duckworth, a British politician. Rachel performed piano concerts with her father starting when she was sixteen.

Goodman and Hammond had disagreements beginning in the 1930s. In 1939, for the Spirituals to Swing concert, Hammond placed Charlie Christian in the Kansas City Six to perform before Goodman's band, which upset Goodman. They disagreed about the band's music until Goodman refused to listen to Hammond. Their arguments worsened, and in 1941, Hammond left Columbia Records. In 1975, Goodman appeared on a PBS tribute to Hammond but did not speak closely about their past. In the 1980s, after Alice Goodman's death, Hammond and Goodman reconciled. On June 25, 1985, Goodman performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City for "A Tribute to John Hammond."

Some people thought Goodman was very strict, while others saw him as proud and unusual. Musicians described "The Ray," a stern look Goodman gave to performers who did not meet his standards. When guitarist Allan Reuss disappointed Goodman, he was moved to the back of the bandstand, where his playing was barely heard. Vocalists Anita O'Day and Helen Forrest spoke about their difficult experiences performing with Goodman. Forrest said, "The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years. When I look back, they seem like a life sentence." Goodman secretly funded several college educations. When asked why, he said, "Well, if they knew about it, everyone would come to me with their hand out."

Goodman helped improve racial equality in America. In the early 1930s, black and white musicians could not perform together in most clubs and concerts. Southern states enforced racial segregation through Jim Crow laws. Goodman hired Teddy Wilson for his trio and added vibraphonist Lionel Hampton to his quartet. In 1939, he hired guitarist Charlie Christian. This integration in music happened ten years before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's long-standing rule against Black players. According to Jazz (Episode 5) by Ken Burns, Lionel Hampton said that when someone asked Goodman why he "played with that nigger" (referring to Teddy Wilson), Goodman replied, "If you say that again to me, I'll take a clarinet and bust you across your head with it."

In 1962, the Benny Goodman Orchestra toured the Soviet Union as part of a cultural exchange program between the United States and the USSR after the Cuban Missile Crisis and the end of that phase of the Cold War. The tour aimed to improve relations between the two countries. Members of the band included Jimmy Knepper, Jerry Dodgion, and Turk Van Lake (Vanig Hovsepian). Bassist Bill Crow wrote a detailed account of the tour and Goodman's behavior during it in a book titled "To Russia Without Love."

Awards and honors

Goodman received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

After being named the best jazz clarinetist in polls, Goodman was added to the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1957.

He was part of the radio section of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

His papers were given to Yale University after his death. He received honorary doctorates from Union College, the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Bard College, Brandeis University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Yale University.

Partial discography

• 1928–31 The Young Benny Goodman (Timeless Historical, ?)
• 1931–35 Benny Goodman 1931–1935 (2CD) (Timeless Historical, ?)
• 1934 Bill Dodge All-star Recordings (Circle, 1999)
• 1935 Original Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet Sessions, Vol. 1: After You've Gone (RCA Bluebird, 1987 Lp–1998 CD)
• 1935 Stomping at the Savoy (RCA Bluebird, 1992)
• 1935–36 Sing, Sing, Sing (RCA Bluebird, 1987)
• 1936–38 Air Play (Doctor Jazz, 1985)
• 1937 Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) (Columbia, )
• 1937 Roll 'Em, Vol. 1 (Columbia, 1987)
• 1937 Roll 'Em, Vol. 2 (Columbia, 1987)
• 1937/38 Jazz Concert No. 2 (Columbia, 1952)
• 1937–38 The Benny Goodman Treasure Chest (3×Lp) (MGM, 1959) with the orchestra, trio, and quartet
• 1938 Don't Be That Way (Columbia, 1938)
• 1938–39 From Spirituals to Swing (2×Lp) (Vanguard, 1959)
• 1938 The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert Vols. 1–3 (Columbia, 1950) released again as Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert '38 (1998), Live at Carnegie Hall (2×Lp) (CBS, 1999), Carnegie Hall: The Complete Concert (Jasmine, 2006), and other times
• 1939 And The Angels Sing (VICTOR 26170-A)
• 1939–41 The Benny Goodman Sextet Featuring Charlie Christian: 1939–1941 (Columbia/Legacy, 1989)
• 1939–41 Benny Goodman's Sextet (Columbia, 1944)
• 1940 Presents Eddie Sauter Arrangements (Columbia, 1953)
• 1946 Benny Goodman Sextet Session (Columbia, 1947) (4×Shellac, 10-inch, 78 RPM, Album)
• 1947 Undercurrent Blues (Capitol, 1995)
• 1947 Mostly Sextets (Capitol, 1950)
• 1947 Easy Does It (Capitol, 1952)
• 1948 Swedish Pastry (Dragon, 1978)
• 1949 B G Dance Parade (Columbia, 1949)
• 1950 B G Dance Parade vol II (Columbia, 1950) released again as B G at the Ballroom (Columbia, 1955)
• 1950 Session for Six (Capitol, 1950)
• 1951 The Benny Goodman Trio Plays Plays For F H (Columbia, 1951)
• 1954 BG in Hi-Fi (Capitol, 1955)
• ??? Peggy Lee Sings with Benny Goodman (Harmony, 1957)
• 1958 Benny Rides Again (Chess, 1960) with the orchestra and quintet
• 1958 Plays World Favorites In High Fidelity (Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, 1958)
• 1958 Benny in Brussels Vols 1 and 2 (Columbia, 1958)
• 1959 In Stockholm 1959 (Phontastic, 1988)
• ??? The Hits of Benny Goodman (Capitol Records, 1961)
• 1962 Benny Goodman in Moscow (RCA Victor, 1962)
• 1969 London Date (Phillips, 1969)
• 1970 Benny Goodman Today (2×Lp) (London, 1970)
• 1978 Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall: 40th Anniversary Concert (1978)
• 1981 Live in Hamburg 1981 (Stockfisch, 2019)
• 1936–63 The Yale University Music Library, Vols. 1–12 (Musical Heritage Society, 1988–1995)
• 1935–38 The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings (3×CD) (RCA Victor, 1997)
• 1950 Lausanne 1950 _ Swiss Radio Days Theatre De Beaulieu, May 13, 1950 (/TCB, 2005)

• 1937–39 The Great Benny Goodman (Columbia, 1956)
• 1939–52 16 Most Requested Songs