Residence:
1125 South Francisco Ave, Chicago, Illinois

From Wikipedia/google books

Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986) was an American Jazz musician, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman".

Childhood and early years:
Goodman was born in Chicago, the son of poor Jewish immigrants who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. He learned to play clarinet in Jane Addams' Hull Settlement House-run band. He became a strong player at an early age and began professionally in bands while still a child.

His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo, and Jimmy Noone.

At the age of 16, Goodman joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, with which he made his first recordings in 1926. He made his first record under his own name two years later.

Goodman's father, David, was a working-class immigrant about whom Benny said (interview, 'Downbeat', Feb 8, 1956); "...Pop worked in the stockyards, shovelling lard in its unrefined state. He had those boots, and he'd come home at the end of the day exhausted, stinking to high heaven, and when he walked in it made me sick. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand the idea of Pop every day standing in that stuff, shoveling it around".

David Goodman was killed in a traffic accident shortly after Benny joined the Pollack band and had urged his father to retire, now that he (Benny) and his brother (Harry) were doing well as professional musicians. According to James Lincoln Collier ("Benny Goodman and the Swing Era", Oxford University Press 1989): "Pop looked Benny in the eye and said, 'Benny, you take care of yourself, I'll take care of myself.'"

Collier continued: "It was an unhappy choice. Not long afterwards, as he was stepping down from a street car - according to one story - he was struck by a car. He never regained consciousness and died in the hospital the next day. It was a bitter blow to the family, and it haunted Benny to the end that his beloved father had not lived to see the enormous success he, and through him some of the others, made of themselves. It is, truly, a sad story. The years that the immigrant David Goodman had sweated in the stockyards and the garment lofts had paid off in a way he could never have possibly imagined, and he never got that reward."

Career:
Goodman left for New York City and became a successful session musician during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He made a reputation as a solid player who was prepared and reliable. He played with the nationally known bands of Red Nichols, Isham Jones, and Ted Lewis before forming his own band in 1932. In 1934 he auditioned for the "Let's Dance" radio program. Since he needed new charts every week for the show, his friend John Hammond suggested that he purchase some Jazz charts from Fletcher Henderson, who had New York's most popular African-American band in the 1920s and early 1930s.

The combination of the Henderson charts, his solid clarinet playing, and his well rehearsed band made him a rising star in the mid-1930s. In early 1935, Goodman and his band were one of three bands featured on "Let's Dance", a well regarded radio show that featured various styles of dance music. His radio broadcasts from New York had been too late to attract a large audience on the East Coast, but had an avid following in California, and a wildly enthusiastic crowd for the first time greeted Goodman. He and his band were to remain on the show until May of that year when a strike forced the cancellation of the radio show. With nothing else to do, the band set out on a tour of America. However, at a number of engagements the band received a hostile reception, as many in the audiences expected smoother, sweeter jazz as opposed to the "hot" style that Goodman's band was accustomed to playing. By August of 1935, Goodman found himself with a band that was nearly broke, disillusioned and ready to quit. It was at this moment that everything for the band and jazz changed.

Palomar Ballroom Engagement:
The last scheduled stop of the tour came on August 21, 1935 at the Palomar Ballroom. Goodman and his band were scheduled for a three week engagement. The Palomar provided the ideal environment, as there was a huge dance floor with a capacity of 4,000 couples. On hand for the engagement were famed musicians Gene Krupa, Dick Clark, Bunny Berigan and Helen Ward.

The first night, Goodman and his band started cautiously playing some recently purchased stock arrangements. The reaction was, at best, tepid. Seeing the reaction, Krupa said "If we're gonna die, Benny, let's die playing our own thing". At the start of the next set, Goodman called his band to play the Henderson charts and those of other swing writers working for the band. The pivotal moments came when trumpeter Berigan went into solos from Henderson's Sometimes I'm Happy and King Porter Stomp. The audience reaction was stunning, cheering wildly and pressing up to the stage.

Over the nights of the engagement, a new dance labelled variously as the "Jitterbug" captured the dancers on the floor, and a new craze had begun. Onlookers gathered around the edges of the ballroom floor. Within days of the opening, newspapers around the country were headlining stories about the new phenomena that had started at the Palomar. Goodman was finally a nationally known star, and the Swing Era began. Following this the big band era exploded.

Carnegie Hall Concert:
In late 1937, Goodman's publicist Wynn Nathanson attempted a publicity stunt in the form of suggesting Goodman and his band should play Carnegie Hall in New York City. The notion of a "hot" band playing in such rarified environs was, for the time, absurd. Regulars of Carnegie Hall were the upper crust of society, and looked down upon the Swing dance craze spreading across the nation. Goodman was initially hesitant to the idea, fearing the worst. However, following the release of his movie Hollywood Hotel and its reception of strong reviews, he warmed to the idea. Goodman put himself into the project with a passion, cancelling a number of dates, and insisting on rehearsals being held in Carnegie Hall itself to familiarize the band with the lively acoustics of the hall.

The concert was scheduled for January 16, 1938. It sold out weeks before, with the capacity 2,760 seats going for the price of US$2.75 a seat, for the time a very high price. Once again, initial crowd reaction, though polite, was tepid. Some of the earlier sets, including a short jam session did not go as well as hoped. As the concert went on, things livened up and the crowd became fully engaged. It was with the playing of "Sing Sing Sing" that the concert really took off. The playing of this song, featuring a number of solos by prominent jazz musicians, received deafening applause from the audience.

This concert has been regarded by some as the most significant concert in jazz history. After years of work by musicians from all over the country, jazz had finally been accepted by main stream audiences. While the big band era would not last for much longer, it was from this point forward that the ground work for multiple other genres of popular music was laid.

Recordings were made of this concert, but even by the technology of the day the equipment used was not of the finest quality. Acetate recordings of the concert were made, as were aluminum studio masters were also cut. However, the aluminum masters were lost for decades. In 1950, an LP release of the concert based on the acetates was made and became one of the first LPs to sell more than a million copies. In early 1998, the aluminum masters were rediscovered and CD set of the concert was released based on these masters.

Continued Career:
Goodman continued his meteoric rise throughout the late 1930s with his big band, his trio and quartet, and a sextet. By the mid-1940s, big bands lost a lot of their popularity. Reasons include: talented musicians were entering the service, or getting better paid factory jobs; gasoline and rubber rationing during WWII; two long musician recording strikes; the rise of popular singers such as Frank Sinatra; the restriction of agents' commissions to 15%, which made promoting small groups more profitable for them. He embraced bebop in the late 1940s and early 1950s with less commercial success, although the recordings he made in that style for Capitol Records were very highly praised by jazz critics. He finally broke up his big band in 1952.

Additionally, Goodman held an interest in the classical music works written for clarinet, and frequently met with top classical clarinetists of the day as well. He twice recorded the Clarinet Quintet of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, once in the late 1930s with the Budapest String Quartet and once in the middle 1950s with the Boston Symphony Orchestra String Quartet; he also recorded the clarinet concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, and Carl Nielsen.

Fame:
Many suggest that Goodman achieved the same success with jazz and swing that Elvis Presley did for rock and roll. Both helped bring black music to a young, white audience. It is true that many of Goodman's arrangements had been played for years before by Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. While Goodman publicly acknowledged his debt to Henderson, many young white swing fans had never heard Henderson's band. While some consider Goodman a jazz innovator, others maintain his main strength was his perfectionism and drive. Goodman was a virtuosic clarinetist and arguably the most technically proficient jazz clarinetist of his time. The Lycos Music website says of Goodman:

His encouragement of musicians like Christian, Wilson and Hampton not only helped Goodman to promote important careers in jazz but also did much to break down racial taboos in show business and American society. The fact that he was never an innovator means Goodman was not a great jazzman in the sense that Armstrong, Ellington, Charlie Parker and others were. Nevertheless, he was a major figure in jazz and played an important role in the history of twentieth century popular music.

Racial Integration:
Goodman is also responsible for a significant step in racial integration in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by the Jim Crow laws. Benny Goodman broke with. tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him and drummer Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman Trio. In 1936, he added Lionel Hampton on vibes to form the Benny Goodman Quartet; in 1940 he added pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian to his band and small ensembles, who played with him until his untimely death from tuberculosis less than two years later. Goodman's fame was great enough that his band had no financial need to tour in the southern states, where his lineup would have been subject to arrest. The integration of popular music happened 10 years before Jackie Robinson entered Major League Baseball.

Family:
Benny met Alice Hammond Duckworth, the sister of his friend John H. Hammond. After dating for about three months they got married on March 14, 1942. They had two children: Benjie and Rachel.

Later years:
Depending on who you talk to, Goodman was a demanding taskmaster, or an arrogant martinet. Many musicians spoke of "The Ray", Goodman's trademark glare that he bestowed on a musician who failed to perform to his demanding standards. Musicians also told stories of Goodman's notorious cheapness, continuing to pinch pennies as he had in his poverty stricken youth long after he had attained fame and fortune.

Goodman continued to play on records and in small groups. Aside from a collaboration with George Benson in the 1980s, he was content to play in the swing style he was most known for. He did however practice and perform classical music clarinet pieces and also commissioned some pieces for the clarinet. Periodically he would organize a new band and play a Jazz festival or go on an international tour. He continued to play the clarinet until his death in New York City in 1986 at the age of 77.

Life in the ghetto was tough.
In the ghetto, the streets were dirty and overcrowded. Street gangs battled each other and there was crime everywhere. His family moved from one apartment to another when rent got too high. Sometimes there was no heat, and food was hard to buy. Benny and his eleven brothers and sisters were often hungry and cold.

Playing music was a way to earn extra money for Benny's family. David Goodman wanted his sons to help earn extra money for the family by playing music like some other neighborhood kids. He took Benny and his two brothers to join the local synagogue's (Kehalah Jacob) band. Benny received his first training there. Soon he was able to outplay his brothers and the other students in the band. When the synagogue could no longer afford to sponsor the band, David Goodman took his children to the Hull House, a charity organization, to continue their musical training. His father saw Benny's unstoppable talent and he struggled to pay fifty cents a week so Benny could have private lessons with classical musician, Franz Schoepp. He also played duets with another of Schoepp's students, the black clarinetist Buster Bailey, who later played with Louis Armstrong. David Goodman wanted Benny to have a well-paid future as a musician. Music was a way for Benny to avoid a life of hard labor and poverty.

Benny practiced, practiced, practiced...
Benny practiced his clarinet three to four hours everyday. Self-improvement was a way for him to get out of the ghetto. Throughout his career, he maintained a strict practice schedule. Benny was a perfectionist - - he wanted his music to be flawless.

Then came jazz.
Chicago in the 1920s had an exciting jazz scene. Louis Armstrong performed there with other influential musicians. Their performances inspired Benny to play jazz. During the roaring twenties, if a musician could play jazz and improvise (make up music as he played along) it was easier to get jobs playing at parties and dance halls. Benny knew his instrument so well -- he was able to start playing jazz to earn money.

At 14, Benny began to play as a professional musician. Benny used to imitate a comedian named Ted Lewis, who also played clarinet and had a very popular band. This led to jobs playing in dance bands. He started earning fifteen dollars a night -- more than his father earned in a week. The money helped Benny support his family. Tragically, Benny's father died just as Benny started to make a name for himself, and never knew of his son's great success.

Benny becomes the King of Swing.
At the age of sixteen, Benny joined Ben Pollack's orchestra and traveled with them to California. Later, he went with them to New York, where Benny eventually settled. He moved his whole family from Chicago and supported them during the Depression. After four years, he left Pollack to play on the radio and in recording studios with many different bands. Meanwhile, a new jazz style began to emerge as mainly African American bandleaders transformed the big band style of the 1920s into swing, a lively, uptempo jazz style. He formed his own swing band and went on tour.

Benny captures the attention of the nation.
In August of 1935, Benny and his orchestra began a series of performances at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. This was the turning point in Benny's career. Thousands of enthusiastic, teenage fans flocked to hear Benny and his orchestra perform. Never before had Benny or swing music received that kind of attention from audiences. The media nicknamed him "the King of Swing." In 1937, Benny went on to perform at the Paramount Theatre in New York where an audience of thousands of frenzied teenagers danced in the aisles and screamed wildly for the band. With Benny's influence, swing music had become a national obsession.

As a bandleader Benny wanted the best musicians, race didn't matter. He did something very important when he hired pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton (both of whom had played with Louis Armstrong) to join his band. It was the first time black and white musicians played together in a famous group. In 1938, Benny's band played at Carnegie Hall with many great black musicians, and he continued to play music until his death in 1986.

Cause of Death:
Cardiac Arrest

Buried:
Long Ridge Cemetery, Stamford, Connecticut.