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3 unusual facts about Benny Goodman


Kenova, West Virginia

The top floor of the pavilion included a dance floor, where many notable Big Bands played though the 1930s and 1940s and attracted big names such as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra.

Reginald Kell

In 1948 Kell moved to the United States where he pursued a solo career and taught, with pupils including the jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman.

West Des Moines, Iowa

Patrons of the Val Air could dance under a canopy of stars to the melodious sounds of Guy Lombardo, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and other big bands.


A Jazz Holiday

It contains tracks recorded between 1928 and 1934 by Benny Goodman, Ben Pollack, Red Nichols, Ted Lewis, Irving Mills, Jack Pettis, Rube Bloom, The Charleston Chasers, and The Venuti-Lang All Star Orchestra.

African Americans in Davenport, Iowa

Another white Quad Cities musician, Louie Bellson (born "Luigi Ballasoni") of nearby Moline, Illinois, the son of a music store owner, played drums for the Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington bands, and married Pearl Bailey.

Alex Hutchinson

His clarinet style has been greatly influenced by Benny Goodman, Buddy DeFranco, Artie Shaw and to a lesser degree Tony Scott.

And the Angels Sing

And the Angels Sing (1944) is a classic example of a film musical written to capitalize on the title of a previously popular song; in this case Benny Goodman's 1939 number one hit song, "And the Angels Sing" by Ziggy Elman and Johnny Mercer, and sung by Martha Tilton although the song is not sung in the film.

Ben Selvin

From 1927 to 1934 he was A&R Director for Columbia Records, where his many productions included scores of exceptionally well performed pop songs of the day with hot jazz solos by musicians like Manny Klein, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, and Bunny Berigan, among others.

Boswell Sisters

Connee's reworkings of the melodies and rhythms of popular songs, together with Glenn Miller's arrangements, and New York jazz musicians (including The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Fulton McGrath, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto, Manny Klein, Dick McDonough, and Carl Kress), made these recordings unlike any others.

Camel Caravan

Various vocalists, musicians and comedy acts were heard during the 21 years this show was on the air, including such talents as Benny Goodman, Georgia Gibbs, Anita O'Day and Vaughn Monroe.

Chris Tyle

In 1979 Tyle played and recorded with the Turk Murphy Jazz Band in San Francisco, then returned to Portland to form a swing music band named Wholly Cats (named after a number written and recorded by Benny Goodman and Count Basie).

Dee Bell

Her debut album, Let There Be Love, with Stan Getz on saxophone and Eddie Duran (a Benny Goodman Band graduate) on guitar, was released on the Concord Jazz label (CJ-206) as an LP for Valentine's Day 1983.

Eddie Gomez

His résumé includes performances with jazz giants such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Bruford, Scott LaFaro, Marian McPartland, Paul Bley, Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, Steps Ahead, Steve Gadd, Ron Carter, Jeremy Steig, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Al Foster, Chick Corea, Eugenio Toussaint and Carli Muñoz.

Frank Battisti

Guest soloists and conductors appearing with the Ithaca High School Band while Battisti was conductor of the ensemble included Benny Goodman, Carl "Doc" Severinsen, Donald Sinta, Harvey Phillips, The New York Brass Quintet, Jimmy Burke, Vincent Persichetti, Norman Dello Joio, Thomas Beversdorf, Clyde Roller, Frederick Fennell, William D. Revelli and Walter Beeler.

Gordon Jenkins

After the Jones band broke up in 1936, Jenkins worked as a freelance arranger and songwriter, contributing to sessions by Isham Jones, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Andre Kostelanetz, Lennie Hayton, and others.

Although best known as an arranger, Jenkins also wrote well-known several songs including "P.S. I Love You", "Goodbye" (Benny Goodman's sign-off tune), "Blue Prelude" (with Joe Bishop), "This Is All I Ask", and "When a Woman Loves a Man".

Gus Statiras

In 1937 he and a group of his friends skipped school to see the Benny Goodman big band that was performing at the Paramount Theater in New York City.

Harry Simeone

After garnering vocal and music arrangement credits for the 1938 RKO motion picture Radio City Revels, Simeone relocated to Hollywood with his wife Margaret McCravy, who briefly sang with Benny Goodman's orchestra, using the stage name Margaret McCrae, and later with Fred Waring.

James Reese Europe

It is difficult to overstate the importance of that event in the history of jazz in the United States — it was 12 years before the Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin concert at Aeolian Hall, and 26 years before Benny Goodman's famed concert at Carnegie Hall.

Jesse Crawford

In 1940, the self-taught Crawford undertook his first formal music study with Joseph Schillinger, whose other students included George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and movie score composers Leith Stevens and Nathan Van Cleave.

Karen Chandler

She made her national debut on Benny Goodman's NBC radio showcase on July 8, 1946, singing "I Don't Know Why," and became the Goodman Orchestra's featured vocalist for the remainder of that year.

Michigan Building

In addition to films in its prime years, the theatre hosted performances of bands led by John Philip Sousa, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James as well as live performances by The Marx Brothers, Betty Grable and Bob Hope.

Miller Symphony Hall

Throughout its history, Symphony Hall has been host to a wide variety of musical and theatrical performances, including Plácido Domingo, Phyllis Curtin, Rudolf Serkin, John Corigliano, Carol Channing, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Sarah Bernhardt, John Barrymore, Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman and the Marx Brothers.

Murray Wall

He played with Benny Goodman in 1985–1986, and following this played as a sideman with Ken Peplowski, Marty Grosz, Keith Ingham, Frank Vignola, Chuck Wilson, and Spanky Davis.

Nick Travis

In 1944 he joined the military; after his service he played with Ray McKinley (1946-50, intermittent), Benny Goodman (1948-49), Gene Krupa, Ina Ray Hutton, Tommy Dorsey, Tex Beneke, Herman once more (1950-51), Jerry Gray, Bob Chester, Elliot Lawrence, and Jimmy Dorsey (1952-53).

Orange Lake, New York

During the big band era, many nationally known recording acts appeared at the resort, including Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman.

Red Rodney

Born in Philadelphia, PA, he became a professional musician at 15, working in the mid-1940s for Jerry Wald, Jimmy Dorsey, Georgie Auld, Elliott Lawrence, Benny Goodman, and Les Brown.

Rolf Ericson

From 1956-1965 he was back in the U.S., working with Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Dan Terry, Max Roach and Charles Mingus, among others.

Sammy Lowe

From the late '50's until his semi-retirement in 1990, he arranged music for Nina Simone (1967), Al Hirt, Benny Goodman, Connie Francis, Sam Cooke, The Softones, The Tokens, The Platters, Brook Benton, Sylvia, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Cameo, Little Peggy March, Della Reese, Panama Francis and Pat Thomas among others.

Single coil

Jazz guitar innovator, Charlie Christian, began playing an ES-150 in the late 1930s with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

Slim Jim Phantom

Immersing himself in the art of drumming and the world of music, Phantom took lessons with Mousie Alexander (who played with Benny Goodman) which included the study of jazz and working through books by Jim Chapin and Ted Reed.

Sonny Igoe

Owen Charles "Sonny" Igoe (October 8, 1923 Jersey City, New Jersey – March 28, 2012 Emerson, New Jersey) was an American jazz drummer and music educator who, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, toured with the orchestras of Tommy Reed (1913–2012), Les Elgart, Ina Ray Hutton, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman.

Sterling Bose

He had many gigs in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, including time with Joe Haymes (1934-35) and Tommy Dorsey (1935), Ray Noble (1936), Benny Goodman (1936), Lana Webster, Glenn Miller (1937), Bob Crosby (1937-39), Bobby Hackett (1939), Bob Zurke, Jack Teagarden, Bud Freeman (1942), George Brunies, Bobby Sherwood (1943), Miff Mole, Art Hodes, Horace Heidt (1944), and Tiny Hill (1946).

The Swing Kings

The Swing Kings: A Tribute to Benny Goodman is a jazz tribute album co-led by Bucky Pizzarelli and Ray Kennedy dedicated to Benny Goodman, released in 2005 by Victoria Records.

Todd Coolman

Since moving to New York in 1978, he has performed with Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman.

Ziggy Elman

In 1936 Elman joined the Benny Goodman orchestra as a trumpet player after playing briefly with Alex Bertha's local big band at Steel Pier in Atlantic City, where Goodman heard him and was impressed.


see also

Glenn Miller discography

Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman lived in the same suite at the time in the apartments in The Whitby in New York whose number was 1411.

Palomar Ballroom

The famed structure was the backdrop for several major Hollywood films that included The Big Broadcast of 1937, made during Benny Goodman’s return engagement, and Dancing Coed, which starred Lana Turner and Artie Shaw’s band.

Peanuts Hucko

When he visited Tokyo, Japan, as the lead alto saxophone player of Benny Goodman's Orchestra in January, 1951, he listened to Japanese famous jazz clarinet player Shoji Suzuki and his Rhythm Aces playing.

Sol Yaged

Yaged served as a consultant on Benny Goodman's musical style for the 1956 film, The Benny Goodman Story.