Happy 100th Birthday Benny Goodman

[dhermann1]

Today, May 30, 2009, is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the King of Swing. My how time flies. It was in 1936 that Benny Goodman's nightly broadcast from LA launched what had previously been a marginal music style, Swing, into national and world wide prominence.
I saw him live once in the 1960's, and he was great.
WKCR FM and www.wkcr.org is half way through a birthday marathon. Almost 16 days of all Benny Goodman all the time. Great stuff! A fitting tribute.

 

[Fletch]

Centennial Concert review

Last night saw the second BG commemorative at Jazz @ Lincoln Center (the final concert is tonight). In this Goodmaniac's opinion, it was a success, and the audience - a sellout house, enthusiastic, and surprisingly diverse in age for a jazz crowd - would seem to concur.

There might be a better big band somewhere than the JLC Orchestra, but if there is, it sure is not working this regularly. Directed for the evening by clarinet legend Bob Wilber (in Wynton Marsalis' absence), they did as good as any and better than some at bringing the BG band, trio, and sextet to life. One might complain only of a certain decorum common to JLC concerts: the program stuck to the recognized classics, and the full ork was allowed no ballads, which were reserved for the small groups as solo vehicles.

Bob Wilber, whose sound is lustrous and undiminished despite his 81 years, was the most "in the tradition" of the 5 clarinetists heard in solo. Ken Peplowski, another guest artist, known as the best technician in BG's style, was unfortunately not given enough space to play. Victor Goines and Ted Nash, who doubled in the sax section, could carry off a BG tribute by themselves. But the high point for this listener was hearing Buddy DeFranco - no one's idea of a Goodmanite, but one of the few thoroughly bop-schooled clarinet giants - now 86 and playing as fluidly as ever, and with a warmer tone than one might remember. Buddy, and his ballad choruses confessed what everyone suspected: it was BG who was his inspiration as a student in the mid 1930s.

Memorable moments: Warren Wolfe on vibes, who unlike young Lionel Hampton, played with only two mallets but still got amazing amounts of music out of his instrument...the wailing trombone trio and Marcus Printup's low-range "talking" trumpet on Sing Sing Sing...Goodman veteran James Chirillo on guitar, bringing classy originality to Charlie Christian's idiom...Walter Blanding's unusually straight-ahead tenor spots...and best of all perhaps, the selections Bob Wilber arranged for 4 clarinets and rhythm section, including the 1939 swing-fugue exercise Bach Goes to Town as well as harmonized BG solos. One clarinet in jazz is all too rare these days; four are a sublime pleasure.

 

[dhermann1]

Wow. Great. One of the interesting things I've learned during about BG the WKCR festival, is that he actually did play some Bebop in the 1947-1948 period. Not great Bebop, but real Bebop. I'm very curious as to why he didn't continue in this vein. I guess he realized his meat and potatoes were in "traditional" swing. Still, there was some tasty stuff.
That must have been one hell of a concert last night.
How long you in the Big Apple, Fletch?

 

[Fletch]

Till early July at least. After that I'm spending some time in Canada, then going back to Iowa State to finish up the master's.

AIUI, one reason BG didn't continue in the bop vein was the sudden death of Stan Hasselgård, the young Swede who was the only other clarinetist he ever featured. Another was that Benny eventually tired of the bop kick and never really worked it into the style of the band. As a result the band had little identity.

Glad you liked the review. I may x-post it to Sax On The Web Forum, where I used to hang out before I discovered the FL.

 

[Sertsa]

Thanks for posting this. Goodman was an early inspiration for me, as I played clarinet and began listening to him when I was in Junior High; I think a Benny Goodman anniversary record was one of the most significant albums I bought in my younger days, and I about wore it out, especially "Sing, Sing Sing."

I continued listening to swing and jazz in general. A school jazz band started in 8th or 9th grade, but there was no need for a clarinet, no matter how big BG was. So I borrowed a saxophone and a fingering chart and auditioned the next day (sax and clarinet are very similar). I got in.