Background
Benjamin David Goodman was born in Chicago to a large family that struggled to get by on a tailor’s salary of twenty dollars a week.
Benjamin David Goodman was born in Chicago to a large family that struggled to get by on a tailor’s salary of twenty dollars a week.
When Benny was ten, he borrowed a clarinet and took music lessons at the local synagogue; by the time he was fourteen, he was earning more than twice as much money as his father for playing four nights a week with a neighborhood band.
Goodman studied at the Lewis Institute in Chicago, and at the age of sixteen joined the Pollack band in California.
He played with several popular bands as well as working as a freelance musician before forming his own twelve-piece band in 1933. Ironically, until a crucial summer night in 1935, Goodman’s band was not a success. It is said that on that August 21, 1935, when the band first performed musical arrangements by Fletcher Henderson at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, the crowds went wild and swing was born. Suddenly, the band was a hit and Goodman became the King of Swing.
Inventive at jazz arrangements, ingenious at improvisation, demanding the utmost from his band and himself, and playing a blend of jazz and contemporary popular music that the public wanted to hear, Goodman led a preeminent ensemble. He was also noted for being the first maj or band leader in the 1930s to put black and white musicians together on stage. His trio with Teddy Wilson on piano and Gene Krupa on drums founded in 1935 (which in 1936 became a quartet with Lionel Hampton on vibes) was one of the outstanding jazz ensembles of all time. His band played at hotels, night clubs, theaters, and ballrooms. On January 16,1938, they first brought jazz to Carnegie Hall in a historic concert.
The Benny Goodman band also featured in movies such as "Big Broadcast of 1937" (1936), "Hollywood Hotel" (1938), "Stage Door Canteen" (1943), and "Sweet and Lowdown" (1944). The band, which launched other stars, such as Peggy Lee and Harry James, to fame, continued to play until 1950. In 1966, they reunited briefly on a trip to bring jazz to the USSR Meanwhile, in 1938, Goodman had begun a second career as a classical clarinet player, playing Mozart, and commissioning works by Bela Bartók and Aaron Copland.
He was said to have been the most recorded solo instrumentalist in history.
Quotes from others about the person
"Working with Benny Goodman wasn’t a job, it was an experience.”
Frank Sinatra
“He was the world’s greatest artist on the clarinet, and his orchestra was one of the best of all time.”
Steve Allen
“All the time I was with ‘Good’ he was never satisfied. With him, perfection was just around the corner. I figure Benny will die in bed with that damn clarinet.”
Jess Stacy
Married Alice Hammond Duckworth, March 1942 (deceased 1978). Children: Rachel, Benjie.