biography
| name: |
Goodman, Benny
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popular name of Benjamin David Goodman, nickname the King of Swing
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1909–86)
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| biography:
| Jazz musician, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was raised in a poor immigrant family, received early clarinet lessons at Hull House, and studied privately with Franz Schoepp. He joined the musicians' union, began playing professionally at age 13, and in 1925 joined Ben Pollack's orchestra, working with it in California, Chicago, and New York until 1929. He played with Red Nichols (1929–30), and for the next four years worked as a Broadway and radio-studio musician, appearing on many freelance jazz recordings, including several under his own leadership. He formed his first regular orchestra (1934) for Billy Rose's Music Hall, which broadcast weekly from New York on the Let's Dance coast-to-coast radio show. In August 1935, near the end of an otherwise uneventful national tour, the band began a residency at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles which was to prove the turning-point in Goodman's career and a cornerstone of the Swing era. Playing before wildly enthusiastic audiences, he achieved national fame, and through constant media attention was dubbed the ‘King of Swing’. In 1936 the band made its first film appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1937, and during that year he introduced his trailblazing, racially-integrated quartet, featuring Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton, as an adjunct to his big band. In 1937 his engagement at the Paramount Theatre in New York was phenomenally successful, and in 1938 he played his celebrated Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert with guest artists from Duke Ellington and Count Basie's bands. His big band and small groups remained peak attractions until 1944, when he disbanded and for several years led a series of combos in a bop-oriented style. During the 1940s he also moved increasingly into the world of classical music, playing concerts with José Iturbi (1942) and commissioning Bela Bartok to write ‘Contrasts for clarinet, violin, and piano’ in 1947. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, he led his own highly successful big bands and small groups on regular national and international tours. In 1955 he recorded the soundtrack for the Hollywood motion picture, The Benny Goodman Story, featuring Steve Allen in the title role. In 1962, under the sponsorship of the US State Department, his orchestra became the first American jazz ensemble to tour the Soviet Union. He reduced his touring schedule by the 1980s, but continued to play brilliantly on all-star concert appearances and with a small group of young musicians up to his death. |
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