Benny Goodman: King of Swing - Episode 2

Curtis Stigers remembers the clarinettist and bandleader Benny Goodman in his centenary year. One of the finest clarinet players in the world, Goodman practised his art at the highest levels in both jazz and classical music. He was a bandleader who strove for, and achieved, perfection through tireless rehearsals of the various jazz ensembles he created over the decades. He was also a complex man, prone to unpredictability, who overcame an impoverished upbringing and the early death of his father to become "The King Of Swing." The second episode begins in 1928, when Benny left for New York as a member of the Ben Pollack band. When the work dried up, Pollack and his band retreated to Chicago but Benny was soon back in New York. Constantly in demand for a whole variety of recording sessions, from jazz to vaudeville, Benny worked with Red Nichols, the great trombonist Jack Teagarden, and played in several Broadway shows including the Gershwin Brothers' Strike Up the Band. His first regular band took up a residency at Billy Rose's Music Hall, before winning a spot on a new radio show called Let's Dance. The band now featured exciting soloists, such as trumpeter Bunny Berigan and drummer Gene Krupa. A weekly show also called for a lot of music so Benny hired the arranger Fletcher Henderson, who set the style for the band. They started recording for the Victor company and their breakthrough record was Henderson's arrangement of the Jelly Roll Morton composition, King Porter Stomp. Benny was a ferocious rehearser and the band got better and better. But when the radio series came to an end, Benny took the band on a cross-country tour to California. The tour was not a success - even his booking agent suggested they give up - but Benny was determined to see the tour through. When they opened at LA's Palomar Ballroom on 21 August 1935, a transformation occurred, and the swing era was born! The series features brand new interviews with jazz critic Gary Giddins; Prof. Dan Morgenstern (of the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University); clarinettist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski; Loren Schoenberg (of the Jazz Museum in Harlem); singer Louise Tobin; Sir John Dankworth and writer John Hancock. There are also rare archive contributions from Benny Goodman himself; Peggy Lee; Buddy Greco; his daughter Rachel Goodman; boyhood friend Jim Maher; biographer Ross Firestone; record executive John Hammond; bandleaders Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton; and the musicians Bob Wilber, Jerry Jerome, Louis Bellson, Nick Fatool, Jimmy Maxwell, Milt Bernhart and singer Helen Forrest.