Outstanding Clarinetists in the History of Jazz – Part 5
Benny Goodman – The King of Swing
A series by József Fritz
June 5, 2023
The jazz world has recently celebrated his birthday. To this day, perhaps the most well-known clarinetist, Benny Goodman, left behind an outstanding legacy both from the perspective of the clarinet and jazz history.
Benny Goodman was born on May 30, 1909, in Chicago, into a family of Russian immigrants.
Growing up in a music-loving environment, as the ninth of twelve children, he ended up with the clarinet at school instead of the large brass instruments. His brothers played the tuba and trumpet. (His brother Harry Goodman later played for many years in his orchestra, first as a tuba player and later as a bassist.)
Despite his initial disappointment, he quickly mastered all the challenges of classical music on the clarinet, but his interest soon turned toward the modern rhythmic styles that were becoming fashionable at the time.
By the mid-1920s, he was already performing in Ben Pollack’s orchestra as an outstanding soloist, touring most major cities in the United States with the band.
In the early 1930s, he founded his own big band, with which he appeared on radio broadcasts. During one of the evenings of the famous – and infamous – radio program “Let’s Dance,” they created such an atmosphere that the beginning of the swing era is often dated from this moment.
From that point on, Benny Goodman rose to become one of the most sought-after bandleaders. He even declared himself the “King of Swing.”
At the same time, he remained active in classical music. In 1938, he recorded Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with none other than the Budapest String Quartet.
The year 1938 marks another important date: on January 16, he performed with his orchestra at Carnegie Hall, alongside many great musicians of the time such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, and others.
The significance of this concert lies in the fact that it was the first occasion where the audience came to listen to jazz rather than dance to it. From this day forward, jazz began to be considered an independent art form.
Around this time he became acquainted with the violinist József Szigeti and Béla Bartók, from whom he commissioned the piece “Contrasts,” which they recorded together in 1940.
During this period his orchestra was considered one of the very best, but he also created lasting achievements in smaller formations such as the trio and later the quartet, whose iconic lineup included:
Benny Goodman – clarinet
Lionel Hampton – vibraphone
Teddy Wilson – piano
Gene Krupa – drums
He was among the first to employ Black musicians, thereby breaking down many barriers.
At the end of the swing era, it became financially difficult to maintain large orchestras. As a result, he began performing with smaller ensembles (sextet, octet), always ensuring that the musicians in his current group represented the most modern trends of the time.
Thus, on his recordings from this period we can hear musicians such as Zoot Sims, Terry Gibbs, Billy Bauer, Clark Terry, Paul Quinichette, and others.
Perhaps no better example of his high level of musicianship exists than his vast number of classical recordings. He recorded works by Igor Stravinsky, Morton Gould, Paul Hindemith, Leonard Bernstein, and Mozart, often with the composers themselves conducting these recordings.
In the 1960s, he also came into the political spotlight, as his 1962 performance in Moscow symbolically marked a step toward the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
His orchestra at that time consisted entirely of top-level soloists, essentially an all-star band, including Joe Wilder, Zoot Sims, Jerry Dodgion, Phil Woods, Tommy Newsom, John Bunch, Victor Feldman, Teddy Wilson, Bill Crow, Mel Lewis, among others.
Encouraged by his success and this “opening to the East,” he spent the following decades touring extensively, performing from Japan to Tibet, and even appearing in Hungary at the Erkel Theatre in 1976.
At the time of his death in 1985, he was practicing a Brahms sonata.
Alongside his extraordinary career, it is important to mention specifically what he was capable of on the instrument, and why hundreds of musicians still follow his example today.
He always approached music from the perspective of the instrument, sometimes even at the expense of the music itself, but he always remained loyal to the clarinet.
He possessed perfect technique, played with a warm tone, and brought a great deal of humor into his performance. Throughout his entire life, his recordings maintained a remarkably consistent quality.
Among his recordings, one can even choose based on his collaborators—for example, while in the 1950s Mundell Lowe played guitar alongside him, in the 1970s it was Attila Zoller.