Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

The pied piper of the big band era (1935-47) even if he did not deserve the title of ‘King of Swing’. The Swing Era began one evening in 1935 in the Palomar Ballroom Los Angeles, when Benny got tired of the pap his band had had to play on a tour across the States. He decided that if his band was going to fail, then they would go down with all guns blazing, playing the swing music they loved.

Swing swept the land and this superlative hot clarinettist made his name and a considerable fortune. The Goodman trio and quartet recordings are one of the high points of small group jazz.