At age twelve, appearing onstage in a talent contest, he did Benny Goodman. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc. So impressed was bandleader Ben Pollack that five years later he sent for Goodman to join his band in Los Angeles, California. After three years with Pollack, Goodman left the band in New York City in to make it on his own.
In he led his first band on a radio series called "Let's Dance" which became the title of Goodman's theme song. The band also played at dance halls and made a handful of records.
In , armed with songs developed by some of the great African American arrangers, Goodman's band traveled the country to play their music. Not especially successful in most of its performances, the band arrived at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles in a discouraged mood.
The evening of August 21, , began coolly. Then, desperate to wow the unimpressed audience, Goodman called for the band to launch into a couple of fast-paced crowd pleasers, and the reaction ultimately sent shock waves through the entire popular music world. Hundreds of people stopped dancing and massed around the bandstand, responding with enthusiasm.
That performance turned out to be not only a personal triumph for the band, but for swing music in general. Goodman's popularity soared; the band topped almost all the magazine and theater polls, their record sales were huge, they were given a weekly radio show, and they were featured in two big-budget movies.
But an even greater triumph awaited—a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York that was to win respect for Goodman's music. The night of January 16, , is now famous; the band outdid itself, improving on recorded favorites such as "King Porter Stomp" and "Don't Be That Way.
Two of the finest musicians ever to work with Goodman were pianist Teddy Wilson — and vibraphonist-drummer Lionel Hampton — However, they played only in small-group arrangements because of the unwritten rule that did not allow white musicians and African American musicians to play together.
Goodman was the first white bandleader to challenge segregation keeping people of different races separate in the music business, and as the rules eased he hired other African American greats. Many top-notch musicians joined and left Goodman's band over the years, more so than in other bands. Most musicians found Goodman an unfriendly employer. He was said to be stern and stingy with money.
Moreover, Goodman was referred to in music circles as "the Ray," because of his habit of glaring at any player guilty of a "clam" or "clinker" a wrong note , even in rehearsal. He studied the clarinet with Franz Schoepp who was a member of the Chicago Symphony. At Hull-House, a settlement house that provided social services to the community, Goodman joined the band there. He quickly excelled at his instrument and made his professional debut in Playing with local bands, Goodman became a member of the American Federation of Musicians at the age of He then abandoned his education to pursue his musical ambitions.
He stayed with the band for several years, eventually becoming one of its leading soloists. In , Goodman released his first album, A Jazz Holiday. He then left the band and moved to New York City the following year.
Goodman found work playing on the radio, in recording sessions, and in the orchestras of Broadway shows. Goodman teamed up with jazz promoter John Hammond in to make some recordings, including a few tracks with an up-and-coming jazz singer named Billie Holiday. Their work together resulted in the top 10 hit "Riffin' the Scotch.
Starting his career as a bandleader in , Goodman and his group landed a gig at Billy Rose's Music Hall. Clearly a musician and bandleader on the rise, Goodman had his first number one hit with the instrumental piece "Moonglow. Lionel Hampton was added later. One date on the tour made history: August 21, That night, the orchestra wowed the audience at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles—an event that many cite as the beginning of the swing era.
Goodman also helped break down the color barrier in music at the time by having one of the first integrated bands. Goodman's popularity continued to accelerate with 15 top 10 hits in , including "Goody-Goody" and "You Turned the Tables on Me.
The program ran until Making his film debut, Goodman also appeared as himself in The Big Broadcast of Making music history again, Goodman's orchestra was one of the first to perform jazz at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall in Other legendary acts on the same bill included Count Basie and Duke Ellington and their bands.
He also released one of his most trademark songs, "Sing, Sing, Sing with a Swing ," that same year, which was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. According to Willard Alexander, the band's booking agent, Krupa said, "If we're gonna die, Benny, let's die playing our own thing. News reports spread word of the exciting new music and the enthusiastic dancing to it. The Palomar engagement was such a marked success that it is often described as the beginning of the swing era.
The reception of American swing was less positive in Europe, however. Some, like the British author J. Squire, filed a complaint with the UK's BBC radio and demanded it stop playing Goodman's music, which he called "an awful series of jungle noises which can hearten no man.
His stay there extended to six months, and his popularity was cemented by nationwide radio broadcasts over NBC affiliate stations. 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. Both combinations were well received, and Wilson stayed on. In his — radio broadcasts from Chicago, Goodman was introduced as the "Rajah of Rhythm.
If such a concert were to take place, then Goodman would be the first jazz bandleader to perform at Carnegie Hall. He gave up several dates and insisted on holding rehearsals inside Carnegie Hall to familiarize the band with the lively acoustics.
The concert was held on the evening of January 16, Once again, the initial reaction of the audience, though polite, was tepid. Then came a jam session on "Honeysuckle Rose" featuring members of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands as guests. The surprise of the session: Goodman handing a solo to Basie's guitarist Freddie Green , who was never a featured soloist but earned his reputation as the best rhythm guitarist in the genre—he responded with a striking round of chord improvisations.
As the concert went on, things livened up. The Goodman band and quartet took over the stage and performed the numbers that had made them famous. Some later trio and quartet numbers were well received, and the vocal by Martha Tilton on "Loch Lomond" provoked five curtain calls and cries for an encore. The encore forced Goodman to make his only audience announcement for the night, stating that they had no encore prepared but that Martha would return shortly with another number.
By the time the band got to the climactic piece "Sing, Sing, Sing With a Swing ", success was assured. This performance featured playing by the tenor saxophonist Babe Russin , the trumpeter Harry James , and Goodman, backed by the drummer Gene Krupa.
When Goodman finished his solo, he unexpectedly gave a solo to the pianist, Jess Stacy. It was the best thing he ever did, and it's ironic that such a layered, nuanced performance came at the end of such a chaotic, bombastic tune.
The concert is regarded as one of the most significant in jazz history. After years of work by musicians from all over the country, jazz had finally been accepted by mainstream audiences.
Recordings of the concert were made, but even by the technology of the day the equipment used was not of the finest quality. Acetate recordings of the concert were made, and aluminum studio masters were also cut. The recording was produced by Albert Marx as a special gift for his wife, Helen Ward, and a second set for Benny.
He contracted Artists Recording Studio to make 2 sets. Artists Recording only had 2 turntables so they farmed out the second set to Raymond Scott 's recording studio. These recordings have not been out of print since they were first issued. In early , the aluminum masters were rediscovered, and a new CD set of the concert was released based on these masters.
The album released based on those masters, The Famous Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert , went on to be one of the best-selling live jazz albums of all time.
She first suggested to Hammond that he see Charlie Christian. Charlie Christian was playing at the Ritz in Oklahoma City where John Hammond heard him in Hammond recommended him to Benny Goodman, but the band leader wasn't interested. The idea of an electrified guitar didn't appeal, and Goodman didn't care for Christian's flashy style of dressing. Reportedly, Hammond personally installed Christian onstage during a break in a Goodman concert in Beverly Hills.
Irritated to see Christian among the band, Goodman struck up "Rose Room", not expecting the guitarist to know the tune. What followed amazed everyone who heard the minute performance. Charlie was a hit on the electric guitar and remained in the Benny Goodman Sextet for two years — He wrote many of the group's head arrangements some of which Goodman took credit for and was an inspiration to all.
The sextet made him famous and provided him with a steady income while Charlie worked on legitimizing, popularizing, revolutionizing, and standardizing the electric guitar as a jazz instrument. Christian's recordings and rehearsal dubs made with Goodman in the early forties are widely known and were released by Columbia.
Goodman continued his success throughout the late s with his big band, his trio and quartet, and the sextet formed in August , the same month Goodman returned to Columbia Records after four years with RCA Victor.
At Columbia, John Hammond, his future brother-in-law, produced most of his sessions. By the mids, however, big bands had lost much of their popularity. From to and again in , the musicians' union went on strike against the major record labels in the United States, and singers acquired the popularity that the big bands had once enjoyed.
During the —44 strike, the War Department approached the union and requested the production of V-Discs, a set of records containing new recordings for soldiers to listen to, thereby boosting the rise of new artists [42] Also, by the late s, swing was no longer the dominant style of jazz musicians. By the s, some jazz musicians were borrowing advanced ideas from classical music, while others, such as Charlie Parker, were broadening the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic vocabulary of swing, creating bebop bop.
The recordings Goodman made in bop style for Capitol Records were highly praised by jazz critics. Pianist Mel Powell was the first to introduce the new music to Benny in , and kept him abreast to what was happening around 52nd Street. Goodman enjoyed the bebop and cool jazz that was beginning to arrive in the s.
I like the piece and I like the way he played it. I think he's got a sense of humor and he's got some good things there.
Benny had heard this Swedish clarinet player named Stan Hasselgard playing bebop, and he loved it So he started a bebop band. But after a year and a half, he became frustrated. He eventually reformed his band and went back to playing Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Benny was a swing player and decided to concentrate on what he does best. By , Goodman had completely changed his mind about bebop. Basically it's all wrong. It's not even knowing the scales.
Bop was mostly publicity and people figuring angles. Goodman's first classical recording was made on April 25, , when he recorded Mozart 's Clarinet Quintet in A major , K. After his bop period, Goodman furthered his interest in classical music written for the clarinet, and frequently met with top classical clarinetists of the day. In , he met Ingolf Dahl , an emigre classical composer on the faculty of the University of Southern California, who was then the musical director of the Victor Borge show.
They played chamber music together Brahms, Milhaud, Hindemith, Debussy and in Goodman played in the world premiere performance of Dahl's Concerto a Tre. In , when he was 40, Goodman decided to study with Reginald Kell, one of the world's leading classical clarinetists.
To do so, he had to change his entire technique: instead of holding the mouthpiece between his front teeth and lower lip, as he had done since he first took a clarinet in hand 30 years earlier, Goodman learned to adjust his embouchure to the use of both lips and even to use new fingering techniques.
He had his old finger calluses removed and started to learn how to play his clarinet again—almost from scratch. Goodman commissioned many compositions for clarinet and chamber ensembles or orchestra that have become standard pieces of classical repertoire. Herman was the dedicatee and first performer of Igor Stravinsky 's Ebony Concerto , but many years later Stravinsky made another recording, this time with Goodman as the soloist.
He also recorded the clarinet concertos of Weber and Carl Nielsen.
0コメント