OK, Benny Goodman looked like a nerdy accountant. So what? Listen to his music...he could swing better than Tarzan. Goodman's cutting-edge clarinet chops were so strong that they propelled him to stardom in 1935 and officially launched the swing scene in popular culture. An all around tough cookie (and reputed to be difficult to work with), Goodman blazed a trail that would prove difficult for other big bands and small jazz outfits to follow.

Modern historians mislead people into thinking that Elvis Presley was the first of his kind, as if teenage girls never defied their parents by listening to "new, devil's music" or never knew how to scream with anxious, passionate enthusiasm before Elvis gyrated his hips on National Television. However, what Elvis was for Rock and Roll, Benny Goodman already had been for Swing/Jazz music in the 1930s and 1940s. He popularized the "new" Swing music of the era that was discouraged by many parents, became a pop icon amongst teens and adults, alike, and broke into Hollywood by appearing in many films while Hollywood was just a fledgling industry.

Born on May 9, 1909, Goodman grew up in a ghetto in Chicago. Benny was the eighth son of twelve born to Jewish Russian immigrants. Although his father worked as a skilled tailor in Russia before immigrating to America, his father was relegated to a career of hard labor in the Chicago stockyards. As a result, Goodman's father taught his children to develop skills that would elevate them beyond the life of a stockyard worker, as well as help support the family in the meantime. For Benny, that skill was music.

At the age of 10, Benny started taking clarinet lessons. He practiced for 3 or 4 hours every day. He developed his perfectionist traits for which he would become legendary throughout his career. Within four years, he was playing with local dance orchestras.

At age 16, Benny became the star of the Ben Pollack jazz band and made his first recordings. Benny

Benny’s father died in a traffic accident that same year, so he dropped out of high school and became the main financial support of his large family by playing on the riverboats and around the local area.

Benny left Pollack in 1929 and became a successful "studio" musician in New York City.

Soon after, he formed his own band of hot musicians called the Benny Goodman Quartet. What’s unusual about it? (1930) It was one of the first interracial jazz groups. Lionel Hampton Teddy Wilson Gene Krupa

When Goodman’s quartet gave their first public performance at the Congress Hotel in 1936, it was an unprecedented historic event. At that time, segregation was so prevalent that Benny would have been arrested if his quartet had played anywhere in the Southern US since it violated Jim Crow segregation laws. It was a good thing for Benny that he was popular enough that he never had to tour in the South. And even though black musicians were performing in his group, black patrons were not allowed inside any of the clubs where they played. Goodman was a major player in the Civil Rights Movement. If anyone called Benny’s black musicians the “n” word, he would say, “if you say that word around me again, I’ll knock you out!” His integration in music was way ahead of its time. It was10 years before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American in Major League Baseball.

Here is a clip of Benny Goodman’s Quartet.

Besides his quartet, he also started the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

In the aftermath of the great depression, a new generation of young people were looking for music that they could call their own. Goodman's orchestra was destined to fill this need, but it didn’t happen quite yet.

A big break came when Benny’s orchestra appeared on the 3-hour Coast to Coast NBC radio program called “Let's Dance.”

Six months later, MCA booked Benny's orchestra for a coast-to-coast tour. Unfortunately, it turned out to be dismally unsuccessful. The audiences were unresponsive to the music. Several times during the tour, MCA considered canceling the rest of it.

Then, on the very last date of the tour at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles when the audience seemed indifferent, Benny pulled out a band arrangement by Fletcher Henderson, an African American bandleader whose success had been limited by racial segregation. Benny then told his band to “get as hot as you wish.” The kids went completely wild over this new music. The Palomar show was broadcast on the radio coast to coast, and that day, Goodman’s invention, the “big band swing” sound, swept over the world. When Benny brought the orchestra back to New York's Paramount Theatre, the kids were actually dancing in the aisles.

This new style and renewed popularity got them a booking at the Congress Hotel in Chicago.

It was at this show at the Congress Hotel that Benny’s music was named “Swing” and he became known as the “The King of Swing”.

This new style was exactly what Benny and thousands of teenagers and young adults were looking for.

Radio was the biggest form of media in the 1930’s, and Benny took advantage of it. His band began performing live and recorded performances on radio.

Benny started to get great bookings and become famous.

In 1937, at a show in New York, 20,000 people came to see Benny. The police and fire departments had to called in to keep the crowd under control.

Not everyone liked swing music, though. The New York School of Music prepared a bill to make all swing music illegal. However, the bill was not passed by Congress.

Despite all the people who tried to stop swing music, the young people of America kept it alive and growing. It kept Benny very active. Television began to become more popular, and Benny and his band made some television appearances.

Although he was very busy, Benny still managed to make time for his family. Here is his wife and 2 girls.

Benny not only played clarinet, but also alto, soprano, tenor, and baritone saxes, bass clarinet, cornet, and sometimes he would sing, too.

Benny Goodman started the career of a singer named Peggy Lee in She had an alluring tone and the ability to write her own songs. She was so scared at her first recording session ("Elmer's Tune"), that some people urged Goodman to fire her. You are listening to that recording.

Benny still had his orchestra, but he also organized the Benny Goodman Trio, re- established the Benny Goodman Quartet, and had other small ensembles, mostly for recording purposes. As always, his groups were racially integrated.

Benny is well known for his improvising skills, but he is also known for being an amazing classical clarinetist as well. He played with some of the most prestigious symphony orchestras in the world, performing traditional concert music, such as the clarinet concerto of W.A. Mozart.

Goodman even appeared in several motion pictures, including A Song is Born (1947), and The Benny Goodman Story (1956).

Goodman made a 1962 tour of Russia for the US State Department, toured Europe through the 70’s, and even returned to Carnegie Hall for a 40-year anniversary of his original performance.

Absolutely nobody played the clarinet as well as Benny. He is a giant among American Jazz musicians.

Having lived the kind of life every musician dreams about, Benny died on June 20, 1986.

Listening Song #1: Let’s Dance Song #2: Sing, Sing, Sing