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ALBUMLate Night Benny GoodmanBenny Goodman
Albums by Benny Goodman
ALBUMAlone TogetherBenny Goodman
ALBUMGershwin: Piano Concerto in F & Rhapsody in BlueBenny Goodman, Arturo Toscanini, Oscar Levant & NBC Symphony Orchestra
ALBUMThe Complete Happy Session Sessions (Restauración 2022)Benny Goodman, André Previn & Russ Freeman
ALBUMThe Stuyvesant String Quartet with Benny GoodmanThe Stuyvesant String Quartet & Benny Goodman
ALBUMThe Legendary Small Groups (Remastered)Benny Goodman
ALBUMCamel Caravan, Vol. 2 (Live)Benny Goodman
ALBUMMozart At TanglewoodBenny Goodman
ALBUMBenny Goodman Plays Selections From The Benny Goodman StoryBenny Goodman
ALBUMVerve Jazz Masters 33: Benny GoodmanBenny Goodman
ALBUMBenny Goodman Featuring Peggy LeeBenny Goodman
Benny Goodman's Popular Music Videos
I Want To Be Happy (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, June 19, 1960)
Benny Goodman
World Is Waiting For The Sunrise (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, June 19, 1960)
Benny Goodman
Artist Playlists
Benny Goodman Essentials
They called him the King of Swing.
Artist Biography
Unassuming yet witty clarinetist Benjamin David Goodman was America's first King of Swing and a pivotal figure in the introduction of Black jazz to white audiences. Born in Chicago to poor Jewish immigrants in 1909, Goodman began performing professionally as a young teenager. After kicking off a string of chart hits in 1930 with the relatively tame "He's Not Worth Your Tears," he later commissioned "killer-diller" arrangements from Fletcher Henderson that added rhythmic excitement to Goodman's famously sweet sound. A regular spot on the radio program Let's Dance primed the pump for a career-making 1935 Hollywood show by Goodman's big band that essentially ignited the Swing era. With racial segregation the norm, Goodman helped integrate popular music by hiring Black musicians such as pianist Teddy Wilson and guitarist Charlie Christian. Goodman's big band, trio, quartet, and sextet ruled jazz for the rest of the '30s. He had his biggest hit with "Moonglow" in 1936, and a 1938 Carnegie Hall show brought the clarinetist and entire jazz genre unprecedented respectability. Until his death in 1986, Goodman continued to perform jazz (including a short-lived bebop period) while regularly commissioning classical works from composers like Belá Bartók and Igor Stravinsky.
Hometown
Chicago, IL, United States
Genre
Jazz