The social and political history of eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century was to have a direct effect on the shape of American music for years to come. Benny Goodman was one of the dozen children born in America of two immigrant Jews driven from their home towns of Warsaw and Kovno (now Kaunas) by the oppressive Czarist Russian regime some time in the 1880s. Like many Europeans who came to the United States at that time, the Goodman family was extremely poor, yet out of this poverty emerged outstanding artistic talent. Four of the Goodman boys, Harry, Freddy, Irving and Benny, became musicians, thanks to the persistence and determination of their father, David. Of these, Benny was to achieve international recognition as both soloist and bandleader. Born in Chicago on May 30, 1909, Benny took up clarinet in 1919 and, three years later, became a full member of the musicians’ union. His reputation as a musician in the Chicago area led to his joining the band of drummer Ben Pollack (then playing in Los Angeles) at the age of 16. His early training had been strict and orthodox under the guidance of a respected Chicago teacher, Franz Schoepp. Goodman shared his tuition with other Schoepp pupils, including William C. “Buster” Bailey, Jimmy Noone and woodwind players from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Years later he told writer Stanley Dance, “I loved Jimmy Noone’s clarinet playing. He was an excellent clarinet player, period. He played Albert system and so did I at the beginning. I was about 16 when I changed to Boehm.” Ben Pollack’s band was popular in California and, thanks to his impeccable sight-reading abilities, the young Goodman found no difficulty in playing the arrangements, many of them written by Glenn Miller, at that time one of Pollack’s trombonists. ’Deed I Do by the Pollack band contains Goodman’s first solo on a commercially released record, a short but assured statement by the 17-year-old Benny. Goodman remained with Pollack until September 1929, by which time the drummer’s band was resident in New York. New York offered ample opportunities for a musician of Goodman’s abilities and his discography from this period shows that he was frequently called for sessions. At this time he was often given solo work by Ben Selvin, a man who succeeded in combining the roles of musician (he played the violin), contractor, record company executive and composer. Prior to leaving Pollack, Benny started to make records under his own name, including a trio recording, Clarinetitis, with piano and drums accompaniment, presaging his more famous trio with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa in 1935. When freelancing in New York, he played on several seemingly casual dates but the passage of the years has endowed many with deservedly classic status. Sessions with the Hotsy Totsy Gang and the Lang-Venuti All Stars indicate the quality of New York-based musicians then available for recording work, players such as Bix Beiderbecke, the Teagarden brothers and Benny’s ex-Chicago colleague, Gene Krupa. By 1932, Goodman was recording frequently under his own name and was also commissioned to assemble and front bands backing singer Russ Colombo at various café dates. He continued to work in the studios and two examples of particular interest are included here. Georgia Jubilee broke the “colour line” at the time because Goodman added Coleman Hawkins to an all-white band, while Moonglow comes from the first session at which the clarinettist recorded with pianist Teddy Wilson. Later, in 1934, Benny got a chance to form a regular big band for a residency at Billy Rose’s Music Hall in New York. At the end of the booking, Benny auditioned for a radio series, “Let’s Dance”, sponsored by the National Biscuit Company, and was appointed. Not only was this a turning point in Goodman’s own career, it was also instrumental in launching the Swing Era as a commercially identifiable period. The band Benny assembled for the broadcasts was driven by the crisp, attacking drumming of Gene Krupa and, for a time, had the inimitable trumpeter Bunny Berigan as a featured soloist. It is Berigan who takes the flaring passage on King Porter Stomp in an arrangement contributed by Fletcher Henderson whose own orchestra was virtually passé by that time. (See Jazz: The Essential Collection, Volume 1.) Henderson continued to supply arrangements to Goodman and frequently played piano with the band. An additional feature of Goodman’s performances commenced in 1935 with the featuring of a trio (Goodman, Krupa and Teddy Wilson), later to become a quartet when Benny added Lionel Hampton on vibraphone. Boosted by their exposure and success with Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton eventually left to form big bands of their own, as did the ex-Goodman trumpeter, Harry James. When “Cootie” Williams left Duke Ellington in November 1941 to join Benny’s band, he was very soon featured in a new “band-within-a-band”, the Goodman Sextet, which also boasted another of Benny’s acquisitions, guitarist Charlie Christian. So influential was Christian among other musicians, that Goodman featured him as the solo voice on the aptly named Solo Flight. Christian would often pack up his guitar after playing dates with Benny and gravitate towards Minton’s after-hours club in Harlem where he would jam with young Turks such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke. Benny was always interested in new directions in jazz and was prepared to encourage writers such as Eddie Sauter (who composed the striking Clarinet A La King), Mel Powell (Clarinade) and rising young soloists such as Stan Getz (heard on Rattle And Roll). As the Forties drew to a close, Goodman was still making use of Henderson arrangements such as Sweet And Lovely (gorgeous tenor from “Bumps” Myers) while investigating the new bebop movement with men such as Wardell Gray. Almost up to the time of his death (on June 29, 1986), Goodman remained an inspiration to others and a man who commanded respect. As an American pianist once told me, “When Benny wants to form a new band, he just has to stick his head out of the window and the musicians queue up for auditions.” – Alun Morgan