Biography of Benny Goodman

A child prodigy, the Chicago-born Goodman played his first gig at age 13, joining the musician's union the same year. His first break came when he joined Ben Pollack's band in 1926, recording his first sides under his own name a year later. He did much session work, playing clarinet, saxophone, even trumpet on odd record dates and cartoon soundtracks thru the early '30s. Though Goodman would assemble large bands for recording sessions issued under his own name, his first permanent road band came into being in 1934. Goodman always knew who the hot players were and staffed his bands accordingly; drummer Gene Krupa, trumpeters Harry James, Ziggy Elman and Bunny Berigan, and pianist Jess Stacy -- all were key players in early incarnations of The Goodman band. Flying in the face of popular, less jazz-oriented orchestras of the era, Goodman's early sides didn't catch on until 1936, when suddenly a high school/college age audience (who had been buying the records and tuning in the band's live radio broadcasts) elevated the shy leader to teen-hero status. Goodman's band swung like crazy, informed by stellar arrangements by Fletcher Henderson and Jimmy Mundy, and his audience (who had seldom, if ever, heard a band playing with this much fervor) put him at the top of the music business, the culmination of which came in 1938 when he became the first jazz musician to play Carnegie Hall.Although best remembered as "The King Of Swing" from the halcyon days of the big band era, the importance of Benny Goodman's small groups cannot be overestimated. Although small jazz groups had existed since the beginning of the music itself, Benny's Trio, Quartet, and Sextet were quite different from what had come before, not only from musical and instrumental standpoint, but racially as well. The original Trio consisting of Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano and Gene Krupa on drums had recorded a small handful of sides when Lionel Hampton (vibraphone) joined the group after an all-night jam session produced electrifying results. The Quartet sides immediately caught on with fans, quickly elevating all four to youth-hero status. The group was even more exciting live, louder and wilder than any of their best records would have suggested. Goodman took an enormous gamble in presenting the Quartet as part of his regular live presentation, at a time when racially-mixed bands did not perform together for public consumption; Benny's group was the first. After Krupa and Wilson left the fold by 1938-39 to start their own bands, Goodman and Hampton expanded the group to a Sextet, showcasing the extraordinary gifts of electric guitarist Charlie Christian, whose influence over future generations of jazz guitarists continues unabated. Though Goodman led several fine small groups right up until his death in 1986, none were as influential as these. ~ Cub Koda