On this episode, we'll hear Goodman's work with singers like Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Mildred Bailey, and Dick Haymes. However, the people often overlooked in Goodman's band were his singers, and that's what we'll focus on this hour. Goodman's Orchestra created the definitive sound of the Big Band Era, with a snappy rhythm section, and his distinctive, beautiful clarinet tone. Not only his music was unique and sensational, but it also reflected his relentless pursuit of perfection.Goodman was also in the forefront of desegregating jazz, bringing such musicians as vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and pianist Teddy Wilson into his orchestra.This week, we explore the music of the King Of Swing himself, Mr. He was famously nicknamed as the 'King of Swing' by his band mates. Benjamin David Goodman, better known as 'Benny Goodman', was a leading jazz clarinet player and an outstanding bandleader of the Swing Era (1935-1945).

After a few successful stints on the NBC radio program Let's Dance and at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, Goodman was dubbed 'The King of Swing,' and the Big Band Era had begun.This entertaining programme shows performances from Benny Goodman and his band, with some of their all time favourites. At the suggestion of his friend, the record producer John Hammond, Goodman purchased a collection of 1920s arrangements from bandleader Fletcher Henderson, and reworked them for his own band. It wasn't until 1934 when Goodman finally forged a band of his own. He was a clarinetist with the orchestras of Bix Beiderbecke, Jules Herbuveaux, Arnold Johnson and Ben Pollack, and also played in Broadway theater orchestras.Benny Goodman grew up in Chicago, and worked as a clarinetist for various bands before winding up in New York. The King of Swing Famed clarinetist, composer ('Stompin at the Savoy') and conductor, educated at the Lewis Institute in Chicago and a student of Schillinger and Schoepp.

Holiday's very first recording sessions ever were a handful of songs with Benny Goodman (there's a rumor that the two even dated for a while, although it seems unlikely). Billie HolidayAt this same time, Hammond was also trying to jumpstart the career of an 18-year-old singer named Billie Holiday. Remember it was Hammond who found Goodman the Fletcher Henderson Big Band arrangements that would help him become The King Of Swing. The session was set up by producer John Hammond, who had been helping Goodman's early career along. The concert was widely thought of as jazz's coming out party, bringing the popular genre to the revered concert hall, and making swing a thing not just for dance halls and nightclubs.Five years before this Carnegie Hall concert, which made Goodman a household name, Benny Goodman recorded several sessions for Columbia Records with an ensemble that featured Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and others.

Rather she filled in with Goodman in 1939 when there was an opening.In December 1939, Goodman settled on a new permanent vocalist who may be the finest full-time singer his group ever had: Helen Forrest. A few temporary singers were brought in for a session or two, including one of the biggest stars of the day Mildred Bailey.Г‚ Bailey was not a permanent fixture of Goodman's band-she worked with her husband Red Norvo. When Tobin left in 1939, Goodman's band was in transition. After Tilton became sick, she was replaced by Louise Tobin, a bluesier singer, who also happened to be married to Goodman's lead trumpeter Harry James.

So, Norma changed her name to Peggy Lee, and would go on to become Goodman's most successful vocalists.Lee left Goodman's group, along with Goodman's guitarist Dave Barbour, in 1943. She was barely 21, talented but unpolished, and according to Goodman, she was desperately in need of a new name. Forrest had also apparently grown weary of Goodman's notorious perfectionism.After Forrest, Goodman was left searching for a new singer, and two weeks later he found one, singing at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago, named Norma Egstrom. She left Goodman for Harry James, who by this time had started his own orchestra, and promised Forrest that she could sing more than just one chorus.

Music Heard On This Episode Loading. In 1956, Goodman recorded for one of the last times with a singer, making an album with his small group and singer Rosemary Clooney. Goodman started recording with a smaller subset of the orchestra-usually a sextet, but often a trio-way back in 1935, and continued this for decades. Or he would perform and record with his much celebrated small groups. His engagements were primarily live performances abroad, performing in Europe, the Far East, and Soviet Russia, sometimes with singer Anita O'Day. He continued to perform with his big band for the remainder of the decade, but by the time the 1950s rolled around, Goodman was mostly retired.

Benny Goodman Musician