I'll Never Smile Again. Mack the Knife - Louis Armstrong. A String of Pearls - Glenn Miller. What is Benny Goodman worth? What is a swing song? Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of popular jazz music developed in the United States that dominated in the s and s. A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind and brass.
What was Benny Goodman most famous song? Why was the swing era important? The jazz bands of the s became the swing bands of the s and s. Swing was a subtle form of syncopation that emerged during the Depression. The Depression followed on the heels of the stock market crash and life became more restrained as thousands of Americans suffered economic hardship.
What year did Benny Goodman die? June 13, Who were the two African musicians that Benny Goodman hired to play in his jazz quartet? This is why although there were African-American band leaders big band was dominated by white leaders such as Glenn Miller. So even as much as the title is deserved by Ellington, he was not able to receive a fair shake at it, due to the racism and systemic prejudice of the day.
That being said, a case could be made easily that no one deserved it more than Benny Goodman. Even his critics had to acknowledge that he was possibly the best jazz clarinetist in the world without regard to race. Combine his clarinet skill with his professionalism, popularity, work ethic, consistency, and the outstanding collection of musicians that he gathered around him, and it would be hard to dethrone him as King of Swing.
Because America and the entertainment world were so segregated, it would be easy to be dismissive of the era. However, without the important groundbreaking work that Benny Goodman was doing to shatter the walls of racism, we would not have the better world a lot more work to do! In , W. My opinion is that had the intent been to take the music away from African-Americans, then yes. But as is the history of jazz itself, it is a blending of traditions and ideas that give life to the art.
Benny brought his Jewish immigrant culture and blended it with African-American jazz culture. Far from trying to take it away so as to profit from it, he worked tirelessly to bring his talented friends of color into the forefront. Benny Goodman was engaged in the human struggle for equality for all. On his biggest night at Carnegie Hall, Benny was making history of a different sort. The night that jazz ascended to its proper place in America high culture, Benny made sure that the hallmark of the event was one of the earliest racially-integrated bands to ever perform in Carnegie Hall.
Benny Goodman was not just famed for being a clarinetist or band leader. He is remembered fondly for his attempts to bring equality to the performance stage.
Because he was musically successful, he had greater freedom to break down racial segregation. It was instant integration. Benny introduced us as Mr. Lionel Hampton and Mr. Teddy Wilson. He opened the door for Jackie Robinson. He gave music character and style. Because of Jim Crow Laws, Benny refused to tour in the south as both a protest and also to protect his integrated band. When Benny Goodman introduced his jazz sextet with pioneer jazz guitarist Charlie Christian , it changed the world.
Not only was Charlie African-American, he was using an amplified guitar. Charlie had a beautiful technique, and to this day jazz musicians copy him. He started on a ukulele as a child in Oklahoma City before picking up the guitar. Charlie would lag slightly behind and then jump ahead of the beat. Simultaneously, he heard white bands in Oklahoma using the slide on guitars with amplifiers and understood the power hidden in electric guitars.
When he joined Benny, Charlie would crank it up. Though Benny loved him, he begged Charlie to turn it down. The music world was never the same. Benny Goodman started on a Penzel-Mueller, used at least 4 different clarinets at different times in his career.
Benny was a normal human with good days and bad, good habits and bad. His personality was not neutral; either you loved him or hated him. As any complex personality, often his wholehearted striving for perfection often left a human toll in its wake.
His sharp personality often made it tense with members of his band. The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years. When I look back, they seem like a life sentence. What they were experiencing was the unstoppable determination of a person with a vision and the drive to accomplish it.
Jimmy Maxwell , who was lead trumpet player understood. He was always a heavy practicer. Practiced all the time. He had ideas on how everything should be done in the band — bass, everything. Nobody argued with him, everybody had great respect for him. But nobody knew how it would be received in Carnegie Hall, America's temple to classical music.
How we would sound. What the audience would think of us. Until they got there, we didn't even know how many people would be on hand. So we just went out and played. Schaap produced the Columbia Records album reissue of the concert and says the event — with no dancing and no booze — elevated jazz to an art form. The musicians sensed the importance of the event that night and they were nervous. Schaap says drummer Gene Krupa knew how he broke the ice. So I had my drum breaks. So I just hit everything I possibly could.
Made a lot of noise. It woke everybody up. From then on it was smooth sailing. The concert turned out to be such a hit that Goodman went back to Carnegie Hall a few months later, and again the following year.
There have been re-creations over the years, including one last week at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center and another planned later this week by the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra. At a 30 th anniversary celebration in , Goodman insisted that for him, the Carnegie concert was just another gig.
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