“Swing was born with Benny Goodman in Chicago on May 30, 1909. Benny is the son of immigrant parents, the eighth of eleven children. When he was ten years old he was provided with a mail order clarinet and the necessary music lessons. Four years later his father was killed in an accident and the young man set out in earnest to make a living out of his music”. (from the album back). This album is fantastic! It’s my second Benny Goodman and solid score for my jazz section. Another RCA Victor “his master’s voice” record. The serious crackle is as off putting as it is endearing. The record itself is a very heavy 33 and half. It’s a Columbia Masterworks Concert No.2 Vol.1 from 1937-38. There are some huge names on here that got big just from playing with him. Goodman’s bands launched the careers of many major names in jazz, and during an era of segregation, he also led one of the first now well known racially-integrated jazz groups.
from WIKI:
Goodman enjoyed the bebop and cool jazz that was beginning to arrive in the 1940s. When Goodman heard Thelonious Monk, a celebrated pianist and accompanist to bop players Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Clarke, he remarked, “I like it, I like that very much. I like the piece and I like the way he played it. [...] I think he’s got a sense of humor and he’s got some good things there.” By 1953, Goodman completely changed his mind about bebop. “Maybe bop has done more to set music back for years than anything [...] Basically it’s all wrong. It’s not even knowing the scales. [...] Bop was mostly publicity and people figuring angles.”
Columbia Masterworks Records was a record label started in 1927 by Columbia Records.
Columbia Masterworks was also responsible for the original cast albums of Kiss Me, Kate (1948) and South Pacific (1949), as well as for the original stage and film albums of West Side Story (1957 and 1961, respectively), and the original cast recordings of Gypsy (1959), The Sound of Music (again 1959), Flower Drum Song (1958), and Camelot (1960). In 1946, Columbia Masterworks released the first album of Show Boat featuring the cast of an actual production of the show, not just one or two singers from it as had been done before.
This is clean and gorgeous with a cheesey but lovely photo montage ~ totally not from this album but you’ll love it.
Related articles
- the performance of a lifetime ~Benny (justfortherecords.wordpress.com)
- Smithsonian Marks 11th Jazz Appreciation Month (washington.cbslocal.com)
dropping the needle...
