{The King of Swing} ~ Benny Goodman

Charcoal drawing of Benny Goodman on this his birth date.

He led one of the most popular jazz bands in America from the 1930s and his 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall was dubbed the 'coming out' party for Jazz as a 'respectable' musical form.  The arrangements to his music were formed by Fletcher Henderson, an African-American from Atlanta.  He led a racially integrated band in an era of segregation in America. 

Goodman made forays into the Classical repertoire.  He played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A and Clarinet Quintet in A.  Perhaps most famously at Tanglewood under the baton of Charles Munch.  These recordings are prized as some of the greatest interpretations of Mozart's two Clarinet concertos.