BENNY GOODMAN
Name: Benny Goodman
Birth name: Benjamin David Goodman
Born: 30 May 1909 Chicago, Illinois
Died: 13 June 1986
Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986)
was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of
Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior
Statesman".
Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish
immigrants from Poland who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father,
David Goodman, was a tailor from Warsaw, his mother, Dora Rezinski, was from
Kaunas. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland and moved to Chicago before Benny
was born.
When Benny was 10, his father enrolled Benny and two older brothers in music
lessons at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue. The next year he joined the boys club
band at Jane Addams's Hull House, where he received lessons from the director
James Sylvester. Also important during this period were his two years of
instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp. His early
influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny
Dodds, Leon Roppolo, and Jimmy Noone. Goodman learned quickly, becoming a
strong player at an early age. He was soon playing professionally while still 'in
short pants', playing clarinet in various bands.
When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack
Orchestra, with which he made his first recordings in 1926. He made his first
record on Vocalion under his own name two years later. Remaining with Pollack
through 1929, Goodman recorded with the regular Pollack band and smaller groups
drawn from the orchestra. The side sessions produced scores of often hot sides
recorded for the various dime-store record labels under a bewildering array of
group names, such as Mills' Musical Clowns, Goody's Good Timers, The Hotsy Totsy
Gang, Jimmy Backen's Toe Ticklers, Dixie Daisies, and Kentucky Grasshoppers.
Goodman's father, David, was a working-class immigrant about whom Benny said (interview,
'Downbeat', Feb 8, 1956); "...Pop worked in the stockyards, shoveling lard in
its unrefined state. He had those boots, and he'd come home at the end of the
day exhausted, stinking to high heaven, and when he walked in it made me sick. I
couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand the idea of Pop every day standing in that
stuff, shoveling it around".
On December 9, 1929 David Goodman was killed in a traffic accident shortly after
Benny joined the Pollack band and had urged his father to retire, now that he (Benny)
and his brother (Harry) were doing well as professional musicians. According to
James Lincoln Collier, "Pop looked Benny in the eye and said, 'Benny, you take
care of yourself, I'll take care of myself.'" Collier continues: "It was an
unhappy choice. Not long afterwards, as he was stepping down from a street car
according to one story he was struck by a car. He never regained consciousness
and died in the hospital the next day. It was a bitter blow to the family, and
it haunted Benny to the end that his father had not lived to see the success he,
and some of the others, made of themselves. "Benny described his father's
death as 'the saddest thing that ever happened in our family.'"
Name: Benny Goodman
Birth name: Benjamin David Goodman
Born: 30 May 1909 Chicago, Illinois
Died: 13 June 1986
Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986)
was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of
Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior
Statesman".
Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish
immigrants from Poland who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father,
David Goodman, was a tailor from Warsaw, his mother, Dora Rezinski, was from
Kaunas. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland and moved to Chicago before Benny
was born.
When Benny was 10, his father enrolled Benny and two older brothers in music
lessons at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue. The next year he joined the boys club
band at Jane Addams's Hull House, where he received lessons from the director
James Sylvester. Also important during this period were his two years of
instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp. His early
influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny
Dodds, Leon Roppolo, and Jimmy Noone. Goodman learned quickly, becoming a
strong player at an early age. He was soon playing professionally while still 'in
short pants', playing clarinet in various bands.
When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack
Orchestra, with which he made his first recordings in 1926. He made his first
record on Vocalion under his own name two years later. Remaining with Pollack
through 1929, Goodman recorded with the regular Pollack band and smaller groups
drawn from the orchestra. The side sessions produced scores of often hot sides
recorded for the various dime-store record labels under a bewildering array of
group names, such as Mills' Musical Clowns, Goody's Good Timers, The Hotsy Totsy
Gang, Jimmy Backen's Toe Ticklers, Dixie Daisies, and Kentucky Grasshoppers.
Goodman's father, David, was a working-class immigrant about whom Benny said (interview,
'Downbeat', Feb 8, 1956); "...Pop worked in the stockyards, shoveling lard in
its unrefined state. He had those boots, and he'd come home at the end of the
day exhausted, stinking to high heaven, and when he walked in it made me sick. I
couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand the idea of Pop every day standing in that
stuff, shoveling it around".
On December 9, 1929 David Goodman was killed in a traffic accident shortly after
Benny joined the Pollack band and had urged his father to retire, now that he (Benny)
and his brother (Harry) were doing well as professional musicians. According to
James Lincoln Collier, "Pop looked Benny in the eye and said, 'Benny, you take
care of yourself, I'll take care of myself.'" Collier continues: "It was an
unhappy choice. Not long afterwards, as he was stepping down from a street car
according to one story he was struck by a car. He never regained consciousness
and died in the hospital the next day. It was a bitter blow to the family, and
it haunted Benny to the end that his father had not lived to see the success he,
and some of the others, made of themselves. "Benny described his father's
death as 'the saddest thing that ever happened in our family.'"