To give his children some skills and an appreciation for music, his father enrolled ten-year-old Goodman and two of his brothers in music lessons, from 1919, at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue and Benny received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist and Chicago Symphony member, Franz Schoepp.
#Benny goodman and his orchestra professional#
On Sundays, his father took the children to free band concerts in Douglass Park, which was the first time Goodman experienced live professional performances. With little income and a large family, they moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood, an overcrowded slum near railroad yards and factories that was populated by German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Goodman's birth. His mother, Dora Grisinsky, (1873–1964), came from Kaunas. His father, David Goodman (1873–1926), came to the United States in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor. Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. In a number of cases the collection contains only a score, or only a set of parts for a particular title."Playing music was a great escape for me from the poverty." Would indicate a clarinet solo part, 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, 1 baritone saxophone, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, vibraphone, guitar, piano, bass, drums, and a vocalist's part. The following abbreviations are used: cl = clarinet (most often a solo clarinet is Benny Goodman's part), A = alto saxophone, T = tenor saxophone, B = baritone saxophone, f = flute, picc = picccolo, ob = oboe, bcl = bass clarinet, frh = French horn, trpt = trumpet, trb = trombone, vb = vibraphone, G = guitar, P = piano, B = bass, D = drums, V = vocalist. Instrumentation is noted generally in the order in which it appears on band scores. Arrangements by Morton Gould are for symphonic orchestra, as are several other large-scale works. Most of the arrangements are for band, though there are a number of exceptions. Among the exceptions are a handful of concert works, including Gordon Jenkins's clarinet concerto, and Gershwin's I Got Rhythm Variations arranged by Morton Gould.Ī number of important arrangers are represented in the Benny Goodman Collection. The majority of works in the collection are arrangements of popular songs. The Benny Goodman Collection represents a portion of the clarinetist's personal music collection that was used in his performances and recordings. He died in New York City on June 13, 1986, age 77. Goodman continued to comission works from contemporary composers, and increased the number of his appearances in classical venues towards the end of his career.īenny Goodman continued to concertize and record up to the end of his life. In 1938 he comissioned Bela Bartok to write Contrasts, which he premiered and recorded the following year with Joseph Szigeti and the composer. In 1935, he performed and recorded the Mozart clarinet quintet. Goodman was also active in classical music. The war years are considered the apogee of Goodman and his band's career. When he reassembled his band the following year, he acquired the services of arranger Eddie Sauter. In 1939, Goodman disbanded his ensemble in order to undergo an operation to relieve sciatica. Through radio's effectiveness in dissemination and by touring throughout the United States, Goodman became known as "The King of Swing," one of the most widely-known and significant figures in popular music towards the end of the 1930s.
#Benny goodman and his orchestra series#
In November 1934, Goodman started a series of weekly broadcasts on the "Let's Dance" program, using additional arrangements by Fletcher Henderson. He formed his own band in Spring 1934, and started out with arrangements by Dean Kincaide, Will Hudson and Benny Carter. In 1929 he moved to New York and free lanced with various bands such as those of Red Nichols, Ben Selvin, Ted Lewis, Johnny Green, Paul Whiteman, and played in Broadway shows such as Gershwin's Strike Up The Band and Girl Crazy. He began playing professionally at age 12, and by 1926 he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra. As his life is well documented, only a brief summary is provided here.īenjamin David Goodman was born in Chicago on May 30, 1909. Benny Goodman was an American jazz clarinettist, composer, and band leader.