How Benny Goodman Orchestrated 'The Most Important Concert In Jazz History'

Clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman, photographed in 1959, made history as the first musician to perform jazz with an integrated band in Carnegie Hall in 1938. Central Press/Getty Images

January 16, 20184:34 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

by TOM VITALE

By 1938, clarinetist Benny Goodman was already known as "The King of Swing" — the leader of the most popular dance band in America at a time when swing jazz was America's most popular music. But nobody knew how it would be received in Carnegie Hall, America's temple to classical music.

"That January 16th back in 1938 was a Sunday, and a cold one," Goodman recalled in a commentary recorded 12 years later. "We didn't quite know what would happen. How we would sound. What the audience would think of us. Until they got there, we didn't even know how many people would be on hand. So we just went out and played."

The concert was recorded, but there were no plans to release it.

"Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert of January 16th, 1938, historically, is the most important concert in jazz history," says Phil Schaap, curator of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Schaap produced the Columbia Records album reissue of the 1938 concert and says the event – with no dancing and no booze — elevated jazz to an art form.

"The Goodman concert at Carnegie Hall is the cornerstone to jazz having performance space in the concert hall," Schaap explains. "But most importantly, aesthetically, it establishes that jazz has value for listening purposes only."

The musicians sensed the importance of the event that night and they were nervous. Schaap says drummer Gene Krupa knew how he broke the ice.

"Krupa senses something's wrong," Schaap says, quoting the drummer. "'I knew I had to do something. So I had my drum breaks. So I just hit everything I possibly could. Made a lot of noise. It woke everybody up. From then on it was smooth sailing.'"

read more at: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/16/578312844/how-benny-goodman-orchestrated-the-most-important-concert-in-jazz-history