The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: Livery Stable Blues

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was originally an off-shoot of Stein’s Dixie Jass Band and started out under the leadership of cornetist, Nick LaRocca. By 1917, the band had moved from Chicago to New York, where in February of that year, they would make the first-ever jazz recording, “Livery Stable Blues/Dixie Jass Band One Step” for Victor.

The recording was a huge commercial success, and it introduced jazz to a nationwide audience. The huge sales of that first recording motivated other record labels to record jazz and thus sparked the spread of the music.

The initial incarnation of the band recorded several other excellent sides including, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball,” “Ostrich Walk,” and “Tiger Rag.” Their music was typical early Dixieland jazz, but the ODJB had some of the finest musicians in jazz music at the time including Larocca on cornet, “Daddy” Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Larry Shields on clarinet.

The ODJB was a white band, and Larocca was a proud member of the white race who always maintained that it was not African-Americans who had created jazz, but white musicians. Larocca’a overt racism has probably hurt the reputation of the ODJB and encouraged many observers to write them off as simply a bunch of second-rate white musicians who only had the opportunity to make the first jazz recording due to the institutionalized racism of the time. However, this is clearly not the case. Freddie Keppard, an African-American cornetist, turned down the opportunity to make the first jazz recording, in 1916.

The ODJB reunited several times in the Thirties and toured Europe. Drummer Tony Sbarbaro was the only original member to appear on all the band’s recordings between 1917 and 1938.

Several compilations of the band’s early sides can be found including, “The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917-1938)” (1995). The band also appears on several compilations of early recorded jazz.

Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France

Guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli were probably the two greatest European jazz musicians of the 20th century. Both men were founders and members of an outfit known as the Quintet of The Hot Club of France, a jazz ensemble that recorded during the Forties.

 Reinhardt, born in Liberchies, Pont-a-Celles, Belgium, was a gypsy guitar prodigy. When he was eighteen, his hand was so badly burned by a fire in his caravan that two fingers on his left hand were rendered useless. His family and friends thought that any future career plans as a musician had been prematurely snuffed out, but Reinhardt adapted and learned to play with just the index and middle finger on his fret hand. Despite his handicap, Reinhardt still earned a reputation as one of the greatest guitarists in the history of popular music.

 In 1934, Reinhardt, jazz violin virtuoso, Stephane Grappelli, brother and fellow guitarist, Joesph Reinhardt, guitarist Roger Chaput and bassist Louis Vola formed the “Quintette du Hot Club de France” and recorded some of the best jazz of the Thirties and Forties.

 During his tenure with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Reinhardt recorded the classic selections, “Minor Swing,” “Djangology,” “Runnin” Wild,” “Paramount Stomp,” :Belleville,” and “Night and Day.” The Hot Club recorded in the swing style that was the vogue of the mid and late Thirties. The band would disband in 1939, only to reform in the Forties with a different line up of sidemen supporting Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.

 Reinhardt died in 1953 at the age of 43, while Grappelli would continue playing and recording until his death in 1997, a month shy of his 90th birthday. Django Reinhardt would leave behind a legacy of musical brilliance and serve as an inspiration and major influence on countless guitarists from rock, country, jazz, and even classical music. Rock guitarists, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, both suffered serious injuries to their hands early in their careers and credit Reinhardt as a huge inspiration in overcoming their respective injuries. Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France appear on numerous fine compilation albums.

Tommy Johnson: Canned Heat Blues

Tommy Johnson was country blues singer and guitarist from Terry, Mississippi. Johnson was born in 1896, and by the Twenties he was an established figure in Mississippi blues. The Sixties blues rock band, Canned Heat, took their name from the Johnson song, “Canned Heat Blues.”

Johnson was a dissolute figure who actively cultivated a sinister image through excessive drinking and stories that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical mastery. A similar mythology would later be attached to Robert Johnson.

Johnson made his first recordings for the Victor label in 1928 with the sides, “Canned Heat Blues” and “Big Road Blues.” Johnson also recorded for Paramount Records in two sessions, one from 1928 and another from the following year. These recordings proved Johnson to be a vocalist of great depth and a fine guitarist. Unfortunately, his recordings for Paramount, are of lo-fidelity.

Johnson’s classic sides can be found on the compilation, “Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1928-1929)” (1994).

Johnny Burnette and the Rock ‘n Roll Trio: The Train Kept a-Rollin'

Singer Johnny Burnette was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1934, and was a boyhood friend of Elvis Presley. Burnette and the Rock ‘n Roll Trio is often credited as the “pioneers” of rockabilly music.

The legendary album, “Rock and Roll Trio” (1988), is one of the finest collections of early rock and roll. The album collects the early singles of Burnette and the Trio and contains at least three masterpieces, “The Train Kept a-Rollin’,” “Honey Hush,” and “Lonesome Train.” The title of the song, “Rock Billy Boogie,” is believed to be the origin of the name given to this style of music, “rockabilly.”

Burnette scored pop hits in the Sixties without the Rock and Roll Trio, including “You’re Sixteen,” in 1960, but his best work was during the birth of rock and roll about five years earlier. Burnette died in a boating accident in 1964, at the age of 30.

Josh White: Jim Crow Blues

Josh White, like Leadbelly, was a country blues singer from the early part of the 20^th century who found new life and success as a part of the Sixties folk boom. White was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1915, and made his recording debut in 1932 with “Baby Won’t You Doodle-Doo-Doo.”

White recorded for number of labels including Perfect and Melotone in the Thirties during his initial incarnation as a country blues performer. In the early Forties White’s music became some of the first African-American music to find acceptance among a white audience when he scored a million-selling single with his song, “One Meatball,” in 1944.

By the Forties White had become a civil rights leader, and in fact, became a close confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the decade, White became the first African-American performer to perform at previously segregated clubs, and he later became the first folk/blues performer to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. White also appeared on Broadway as Blind Lemon Jefferson in the musical, “John Henry.” White’s appearance on Broadway brought him to the attention of the New York City folk crowd which at that time included Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Burl Ives.

By the late Fifties, White was a fixture in the Folk revival and was recording more folk-oriented material. White continued performing in folk music festivals and toured the world up until his death, in 1969.

The best collections of White’s music include, “Chain Gang” (1940), “Ballads and Blues” (1946), and the great collection of civil rights tunes, “Southern Exposure: An album of Jim Crow Blues Sung by Josh White” (1941).

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

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Drummer Art Blakey and his band, The Jazz Messengers, are the pioneers of a jazz sub-genre called “hard bop”. Hard bop takes the fundamentals of be-bop and adds elements of rhythm and blues. The idea behind hard bop was to make be-bop music more danceable and perhaps, more palatable to mainstream music fans.

Art Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919, and by the Fifties, his virtuosic and incessant drumming would put him at the forefront of the be-bop genre along with Dizzy Gilliespie, Thelonious Monk and others.

In 1954, he formed the band, The Jazz Messengers, which became a training ground for up and coming young jazz musicians. New Orleans trumpet prodigy Wynton Marsalis would get his professional start as a member of the band. Among the best of the Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers albums are “A Night at Birdland” (Volumes 1-3) (1954), “The Jazz Messengers” (1956), “A Night in Tunisia” (1957), “Drum Suite” (1957), “ArtBlakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk” (1958), “Ritual” (1959), “Moanin’”(1959),  “The Big Beat” (1960),  “Mosaic” (1961) “Free for All,” “A Night in Tunisia” (1961), and “Indestructible” (1965).

Ben E. King: Stand by Me

Singer/songwriter Ben E. King is one of the best performers of the smooth soul singer set. King, who was born Benjamin Earl Nelson in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1938, got his start in music with a revamped version of the Drifters, in 1958.

As the lead singer of this new incarnation of the Drifters, King lent his velvet pipes to the hits, “There Goes My Baby,” (which he co-wrote) “Save the Last Dance for Me,” and “This Magic Moment.”

Due to a contract dispute with Drifters manager George Treadwell, King left the group and embarked on a solo career in 1960. King would soon find solo success with a number of classic hits including the Phil Spector-produced “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me.” Both of these songs are among the finest pop records made in the decade. King would score a number of lesser hits in the early Sixties with the songs, “Young Boy Blues,” I (Who Have Nothing),” and “Hear Comes the Night.”

King’s classic hits can be found on the compilations, “Stand By Me-The Best of Ben E. King and Ben E, King and the Drifters” (1986), “Stand By Me (The Ultimate Collection” (1987), and “Anthology” (1993).

Julia Lee: Gotta Gimme Whatcha Got

Julia Lee was among the best female jazz singers and pianists of the Thirties and Forties. Lee was born in Boonville, Missouri, in 1902, and grew up in Kansas City.

Lee began her career in the Twenties as a pianist with several bands including the band of her brother, George Lee. She made her recording debut in 1927 as a pianist for Jesse Stone. In 1935, Lee embarked on her own solo career and made her first recordings on for Capitol Records in 1945.

During the Forties, Lee scored a number of R&B hits including, “Gotta Gimme Whatcha Got,” “Snatch and Grab It,” “King Size Papa,” and “My Man Stands Out.” She was accompanied on these recordings by the likes of Red Nichols, Jay McShan, Benny Carter, and Red Norvo.

Lee’s classic recordings can be found on the following albums: Classics Julia Lee 1927-1946” (1995) and “Classics Julia Lee 1947” (1995).

Anthony Braxton: Saxophone Improvisation

Anthony Braxton is among the most learned of jazz musicians and is currently a professor of music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also a jazz composer, saxophonist, flautist, pianist, and clarinetist. Braxton was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1945.

Early in his career, Braxton became involved with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and recorded his debut album, “3 Compositions of New Jazz,” in 1968. The album was a free jazz excursion that is probably too far removed from mainstream music to be of interest to those who are not free jazz fans.

In 1971, Braxton recorded the album “For Alto” which consisted of Braxton solo on alto-saxophone without accompaniment. The album is a double-disc offering of free jazz sax solos that while lauded by critics is definitely not for everyone.

Braxton has been extremely prolific over the years, and he has recorded dozens of albums of free jazz and avant-garde jazz since the mid-Sixties. Braxton has also recorded with numerous fellow musicians such as Chick Corea, George Lewis, Fred Frith, and John Zorn.

Among the best albums from Braxton extensive catalogue are those mentioned above and the following: “Saxophone Improvisation Series F” (1972), “Trio and Duet” (1975), “Four Compositions” (1973)” (1977), “Performance 9/1/79” (1981), “Quartet (London) 1985” (1988), “Six Monk’s Compositions” (1987)” (1988), “Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989” (1990), “Dortmund (Quartet) 1976” (1991), “Willisau (Quartet) 1991” (1992), “Quartet (Coventry) 1985” (1993), “Creative Orchestra (Kohl) 1978” (1995), “Quintet (Basel) 1977” (2001), “23 Standards (Quartet) 2003” (2004), and “9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006” (2007).

Roy Eldridge: Little Jazz

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Most jazz critics consider Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge as the successor of Louis Armstrong in the evolution of jazz trumpet players. Armstrong is almost universally considered as the greatest jazz trumpeter in history; however, Eldridge is viewed as the musician who took the hot New Orleans style of Armstrong and turned it into something new.

Eldridge was notable for his rough and speedy technique, particularly when playing high notes on the trumpet. A now almost forgotten trumpeter, Jabbo Smith, who rivaled the virtuosity of Armstrong in the late Twenties, was a huge influence on Eldridge, as was Armstrong.

In terms of jazz cornet/trumpet greatness, the progression is loosely as follows: Buddy Bolden-Freddie Keppard-King Oliver-Louis Armstrong-Roy Eldridge-Dizzy Gillespie-Miles Davis-Clifford Brown.

Eldridge was born to a musical family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1911. As a child, Eldridge became a drummer in the band of his brother, Joe, before his brother convinced him to pick up the trumpet. By the age of 20, he had started his own band in Pittsburgh and then left that band to join the band of Horace Henderson, brother of the great New York bandleader, Fletcher Henderson. Shortly thereafter, in 1930, Eldridge moved to New York City.

In New York, Eldridge found work with a number of dance bands, and by 1935, while as a member of the Teddy Hill Orchestra, Eldridge made his first recordings. Eldridge would eventually land a gig with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra from 1935-36, becoming Henderson’s star soloist by lending his hot solos to the Henderson classics, “Christopher Columbus” and “Blue Lou.”

Eldridge later moved on to work with white bands led by Gene Kroupa, and later, Artie Shaw. The presence of an African-American musician in a white band was a rarity in the segregated America of the Thirties. In the post-war era, Eldridge became one of the leading musicians that toured under the banner of “Jazz at the Philharmonic.” He also freelanced with the bands of Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman.

Eldridge’s best recordings include, “Drummer Man” (1956) with Gene Kroupa, “Rockin’ Chair” (1956), “Little Jazz” (1989), and  a number of compilations dedicated to his music. Eldridge died in 1989.

Badfinger: Straight Up

Badfinger was a superb pop/rock band that formed in Abertawe, England, in 1969. The band was initially notable as the first band signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records. The music that Badfinger produced reminded many of the Beatles and the band’s presence on the Apple label had many dismiss them as Beatles wannabes.

Badfinger recorded the excellent album, “Straight Up,” (1971), that saw the band fulfill the promise that they had shown in getting signed to Apple.  The album contained the classic tracks and minor hits, “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue.”

The Straight Up album is one of the earliest examples of what would later be coined “power pop,” with the amplified guitar sound, perfect vocal harmonies and catchy melodies. Power pop bands such as Big Star and The Raspberries would follow in their wake.

Badfinger’s story would end sadly as the group would never shake their image as a second-rate Beatles clone. The members would wind up in financial hardship driving leader Pete Ham to commit suicide in 1975.

The Animals: Animalism

The Animals, lead by singer, Eric Burdon, were part of the British invasion of the Sixties. The Animals were among the finest of the blues-based rock bands to emerge from Britain in the Sixties.

Burdon, organist Alan Price and drummer John Steel started out in a Newcastle band called the Kansas City Five. In 1962, with the additions of guitarist Hilton Valentine and bassist Chas Chandler, the band eventually became known as the Animals.

The band landed a regular gig at the Crawdaddy Club in London. Record producer Mickie Most got them signed to EMI on the strength of their live performances, and the label released their first singles, “Baby Let Me Take You Home” and “House of the Rising Sun,” in 1964. The latter song would become a huge hit and transform the band into one of the leading acts of the British Invasion.

The Animals continued recording a slew of hits throughout the Sixties with, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Got to Get Out Of This Place,” “When I Was Young,” “Monterrey,” and Sky Pilot.”

After recording several excellent albums, starting with their fine debut release, “The Animals” (1964) the band broke-up in 1969.

Among their best albums are the classics, “The Animals on Tour,” (1965) “Animalization” (1966) and “Animalism” (1966), and “Animalisms” (1966).

The Amazing Rhythm Aces: Classic Country Rock

The Amazing Rhythm Aces were one of the finest country rock bands of the Seventies. The band played its country rock with a large dose of the blues and under the leadership of singer/guitarist Russell Smith scored a hit with “Third Rate Romance” in 1975. That song can be found on the band’s excellent debut album, “Stacked Deck” (1975).

The band’s sophomore album, “Too Stuffed to Jump” (1976), was another fine effort with the track, “The End is not in Sight” as the album’s highlight.

Al Green: Call Me

Al Green is a southern soul singer from Forrest City, Arkansas who embodies the smoother and sweeter side of soul music which in the hands of the likes of James Brown, Ray Charles and Otis Redding was a far grittier genre. Green’s songs tell tales of true love and extol the virtues of fidelity. His biggest hit, “Let’s Stay Together,” is a primary example Green’s brand of sweet soul.

Green would become one of the biggest soul stars of the Seventies with a steady string of hits which included, “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love with You,” and “Call Me.” Green’s hits were recorded for Hi Records in Memphis under the deft direction of producer Willie Mitchell.

Green’s best albums include, “Green is Blues” (1969), “Al Green Gets Next to You” (1970), “Let’s Stay Together” (1972), “I’m Still in Love with You” (1972), and “Call Me” (1973).

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell: How Long-How Long Blues

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell comprised one of the most influential musical partnerships in the history of the blues. Singer and pianist Carr teamed up with the brilliant guitarist Blackwell Carr was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905. Blackwell was born in Syracuse, South Carolina, in 1903. After both men had worked for several years as accompanists for other performers, they formed a duo in 1928 and made their first recordings for Vocalion records that year.

The duo’s first recording, “How Long-How Long Blues,” was a smash hit and a million-seller that ushered in a more polished urban sound for blues recordings. The money that the duo made from the song allowed Scrapper Blackwell to quit his bootlegging activities, but provided Leroy Carr with the means to exacerbate his already serious alcoholism.

Carr and Blackwell recorded several more classic sides between 1928 and 1935, including “Midnight Hour Blues,” “Mean Mistreater Mama,” “Blues before Sunrise,” and the song that seemed to foretell Carr’s early demise, “Six Cold Feet in the Ground.”

By 1935, Carr’s drinking had resulted in kidney failure and entire recording sessions were scrapped as a result. Carr died later that year of nephritis at the age of thirty.

Carr and Blackwell’s classic sides can be found on the following compilation albums: “Blues before Sunrise” (1962), “(1929-1935)” (2000), and “Naptown Blues” (1996),

Them: Here Comes the Night

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Them was perhaps the best of the British blues-rock bands that emerged during the Sixties. The band covered much of the same blues/R&B terrain as bands such as the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds, yet they possessed the best white blues shouter of the era, Van Morrison.

Them was formed in Belfast, Ireland, in 1964, and the band quickly gained a reputation for its hard drinking and brawling as well as music.

The band’s first album, “Here Comes the Night” (1965), was a brilliant debut which combined inspired covers of blues standards and original material. The title track, “Here Comes the Night,” would become a hit. “Mystic Eyes” and “Gloria” are also standout tracks. The band’s sophomore album, “Them Again” (1966), continued in the same rave-up R&B vein with outstanding covers of “Turn On Your Love Light,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and “I Got a Woman.”

Van Morrison left the group after Them Again to pursue a solo career and the band continued without him. Despite the loss of Morrison, Them produced two more solid albums featuring a new psychedelic sound, “Now and Them” (1968) and “Time Out! Time in for Them” (1968). Complete Them (1964-1967) is a fine compilation of the band’s work 

The Guess Who: No Time

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From the freezing cold prairie town of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the Guess Who burst upon the music scene in the late Sixties. When original lead singer, Chad Allen, left the band to return to school, his replacement, the teenaged Burton Cummings, would spearhead the band to international fame.

Cummings and the rest of the band, guitarist Randy Bachman, bassist Jim Kale; and drummer Gary Peterson would soon score a big hit with “These Eyes.” That song would be included in the album, “Wheatfield Soul” (1968), the first Guess Who album to make an impact outside of Canada.

With keyboardist and lead singer Cummings as front man, the Guess Who would record a string of hit singles which included “Undun” and “Laughing” from “Canned Wheat” (1969) and “American Woman” and “No Time” from the “American Woman” (1970) album. The track, “American Woman,” would become the band’s one and only No. 1 hit.

Randy Bachman, a Mormon, would leave the band during the height of its success, fed up with the excessive lifestyles of his band mates. He was replaced by guitarist Kurt Winter, and the Guess Who kept on churning out hits. The album,  “Share The Land” (1970), saw the title track, “Share the Land,” “Hand Me Down World,” and “Hang On to Your Life” all become hits. Despite earning a reputation as a “singles” band, the Guess Who produced solid and consistent albums throughout this period.

The Guess Who would continue to tour and record until 1975, occasionally scoring hit singles and releasing decent albums, the best of which is “Live at theParamount

” (1972).

Sidney Bechet: Clarinet Genius

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Sidney Bechet was a musical child prodigy born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1897. Bechet was so musically advanced as a child that he had already played with many of the top bands in New Orleans. Bechet was one of a few jazz musicians of his generation who could rival Louis Armstrong’s brilliance as a soloist.

In 1917, Bechet moved to Chicago. After a tour of Europe, Bechet returned to America with a new instrument, the soprano saxophone and he soon established himself as a master of the instrument. Bechet made his recording debut in 1923 with Clarence Williams. He appeared with Louis Armstrong on a classic session with the Clarence Williams Blue Five that produced superb sides such as “Cake Walkin’ Babies from Home.”

From 1925 to 1929, Bechet lived and played in Europe. While in Paris, Bechet became involved in a daylight gun fight with another musician that resulted in injuries to innocent bystanders. Bechet was imprisoned for a year as a result, and was deported upon release.

During the depression, Bechet supplemented his income by running a tailor shop with trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. Bechet and Ladnier subsequently recorded several outstanding sides of New Orleans jazz under the name, “New Orleans Feetwarmers.” In 1938, Bechet scored a big hit with his stirring rendition of the standard, “Summertime.”

Bechet returned to France in 1952 and continued to record hit jazz records. Bechet died in Paris, in 1959.

Bechet’s recordings can be found on a number of fine compilation albums, including the great two-volume, “Jazz Classics” (1950) and "Chronological Classics."

Benny Goodman Sing Sing Sing

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Benny Goodman and long-time rival, Artie Shaw, are the two greatest and best-known white clarinetists in the history of jazz. Both men achieved huge commercial and critical success during their respective careers. It was Goodman, however, who would forever be identified with the title, “King of Swing,” for his role in the invention of the most popular jazz subgenre during the height of the music’s popularity.

Benny Goodman was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1909. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who struggled to provide for their large family. Despite the family’s relative poverty, David Goodman arranged for music lessons for three of his sons, including Benny, at a local Chicago synagogue. After a year’s training, Benny Goodman, aged eleven, joined a boys’ club band and received further musical training from the club’s director, and later from a classically-trained clarinetist. With this solid foundation, Goodman would launch a career that would span seven decades and would span musical genres from early classic jazz to classical music.

Goodman’s began his jazz career as a clarinetist in the Ben Pollack Orchestra at the age of sixteen. He would make his first recording with the Pollack Orchestra in 1926. He would continue performing and recording with the Pollack Orchestra and its various off-shoots until 1929. During this frenetic period, Goodman also recorded with nationally- known bands of Ben Selvin, Red Nichols, and Ted Lewis. He also recorded under his own name with trombonist Glenn Miller and others as “Benny Goodman’s Boys.”

In the early Thirties, John Hammond of Columbia records arranged for Goodman to record in the company of other stellar jazz musicians in a jazz “all star” band. Other members of the band included pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Kroupa, two musicians that would form the core of the rhythm section of Goodman’s later orchestra. In 1935, Goodman expressed interest in appearing on the nationwide radio dance music show, “Let’s Dance.” At the advice of John Hammond, Goodman secured “swinging” arrangements of songs from Fletcher Henderson, leader of one of New York’s best jazz orchestras. These arrangements helped make Goodman a hit with the West Coast audience that heard his performance.

On the strength of the Let’s Dance performance and the rave reviews of Goodman’s recordings of “King Porter Stop” and “Sometimes I’m Happy” with Fletcher Henderson arrangements, a large and enthusiastic crowd of young fans were waiting in Oakland, California when the band played a show there in August of 1935. When the Goodman band began to play, the crowd went wild. The same reaction greeted the band in Los Angeles during the debut of a three week engagement at the Palomar Ballroom in August, 1935. During the three-week engagement the “Jitterbug” dance was born, and along with it, the “Swing Era.”

In the wake of the tremendous success of the Goodman band in California, Fletcher Henderson disbanded his great orchestra and become Goodman’s full-time arranger. With the addition of Henderson and pianist Teddy Wilson, both African-Americans, Goodman’s band became the first racially-integrated jazz band in America. Goodman would later add another African-American, the great Charlie Christian, on guitar.

Goodman was coined, “The King of Swing” in 1937, and was secured as such when his orchestra became the first jazz band to play New York’s Carnegie Hall, in 1938. The concert, which included members of Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s orchestras, was a true test for jazz music as an art form. If the high-brow Carnegie Hall set could be moved by jazz, the music would earn a much needed stamp of approval from the music establishment. After an uninspired start, the Goodman Orchestra slowly built momentum and climaxed with an epic version of “Sing, Sing, Sing” featuring spectacular solos by Goodman and pianist, Jess Stacy.

In 1939, John Hammond introduced the electric guitarist, Charlie Christian, to Goodman as a prospective band member. Despite initial doubts, Goodman was greatly impressed with Christian’s playing and included him in the Benny Goodman Sextet for the next two years. The sextet recordings with Christian including “Rose Room,” “Breakfast Feud,” and “Grand Slam” are some of the finest recordings in jazz history.

Goodman continued to have tremendous success as a big band leader until the mid-Forties when swing music began to lose steam. Goodman flirted with be-bop music and even formed a bebop band before finally denouncing the music. In 1949, at the age of 40, Goodman turned his back on jazz to devote himself to the study of classical music. Following a lengthy retirement from jazz, Goodman died of a heart attack in 1986.

A plethora of fine collections are available for Goodman’s recordings at various phases of his career including the fine four volume “Chronological Classics:Benny Goodman and His Orchestra” (1996) while “The Famous 1938 Carnegie HallJazz Concert Vol.1-2” (1950) is one of the finest live recordings of popular music ever made.