I used to always go over to my grandparent’s house and watch my grandfather go crazy over this “Jazz” music. He explained to me that it wasn’t Jazz unless it swung like the greats. I listened to a song “Sing Sing Sing” the other day from one of my Jazz collections that my grandpa gave to me and realized that their was so much energy and pizzazz in this music. He explained to me that it was all put together by a guy named Benny, and I understood why. Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David in 1909, one of twelve children, grew up in a Chicago ghetto with his family, who fled Russian anti-Semitism. Encouraged by his father, an immigrant tailor, to learn a musical instrument, Goodman took up the clarinet at a young age. From the start, he displayed an exceptional talent. Before he was in his teens, he had begun performing in public. He received his first true clarinet and musical training from a local synagogue, then continued practice through Hull House, a social-service agency for the under privileged children of the Chicago. The most important of his teachers, at the school, was Franz Schoeppe, a classical instructor from the Chicago Musical College who ignored jazz and stressed in his students the discipline and respect for classical music. After his father died, fourteen-year-old Benny helped support his family by playing at a Chicago neighborhood dance hall and working locally for two years. In 1925, Gil Rodin, who was then with the band led by Ben Pollack, heard him. Goodman was hired by Pollack, then working inCalifornia, and the following year made a triumphal return to Chicago as featured soloist with the band. Goodman remained with Pollack until 1929, when he became a much in-demand session musician in New York. When the band was between jobs, Goodman jammed with members of the Austin High Gang who introduced him to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Dixieland clarinet style o...
