Benny Goodman – The King of Swing

Benjamin David Goodman born on May 30, 1909, was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader known as the “King of Swing”.

In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups 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.

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. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music.

Goodman was born in Chicago as the ninth child to a family of poor Jewish immigrants from Poland. His father was a tailor from Warsaw and his mother was from Kaunas. His parents met in the United States, Baltimore.

When he was 10 years old, his father recorded him and his brother’s years of music lessons, which Goodman was very prominent. He began playing in a jazz band for boys, and received training in both jazz and classical music, which influenced his playing and his work. Goodman learned quickly and became involved in professional music from a very early age.

When he was 16, he joined one of Chicago’s top bands, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, with whom he recorded his first recordings. The first recording under his name was recorded after only two years.

In the late 1920s, Goodman moved to New York, where he was highly regarded. In 1932 he founded his orchestra, which became one of the greatest and most important in the history of jazz.

In the Goodman Orchestra, many important musicians were discovered, and performed in countless performances and recorded countless recordings.

Not only was he one of the three great orchestral leaders (with the others being Ellington and Baysey) he also discovered many important musicians, the most important of which is probably Charlie Christian.

In the 1940s Big Band became less popular, and more difficult to record (due to problems with the record companies). He recorded with small bands, as is customary in style, and his clarinet playing influenced all the musicians who followed him. His recordings have also received positive feedback from both critics and audiences.

Although in the first year and a half, Goodman received positive criticism, he later failed to keep up with the changes that occurred at the beginning of the Bop Revolution. He soon became frustrated and left the style completely.

Undoubtedly, Goodman is reminded of history books by his swing playing, which continued even after the bop appeared. In the end, Goodman changed his mind completely, even claiming that

After despairing of Boi Bop, Goodman returned to playing classical music and even excelled. Many considered it to be the clarinet players of that era.

He also experimented with combinations between swing and classical music, and wrote many adaptations for classical works, for example by composer Bella Bartok.

He continued to play on records and in small groups. In the early 1970s he collaborated with George Benson after the two met taping a PBS tribute to John Hammond, recreating some of Goodman’s duets with Charlie Christian.

Benson appeared on Goodman’s album Seven Come Eleven. Goodman continued to play swing, but he practiced and performed classical pieces and commissioned them for clarinet. In 1960 he performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with conductor Alfredo Antonini at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City.

Despite health problems, he continued to play until his death from a heart attack in 1986. He died at the age of 77.