Benny Goodman....some Trio, Quartet, and Sextet recordings.......

The game changer:

Benny Goodman....some Trio, Quartet, and Sextet recordings.....


Goodman is  responsible for a significant step in racial integration  in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by the Jim Crow laws. Benny Goodman broke with tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him and drummer Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman Trio. In 1936, he added Lionel Hampton on vibes to form the Benny Goodman Quartet; in 1939 he added pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian  to his band and small ensembles, who played with him until his death from tuberculosis less than three years later. This integration in music happened ten years before Jackie Robinson became the first black American to enter Major League Baseball. "[Goodman's] popularity was such that he could remain financially viable without touring the South, where he would have been subject to arrest for violating Jim Crow laws." According to Jazz by Ken Burns, when someone asked him why he "played with that nigger" (referring to Teddy Wilson), Goodman replied, "I'll knock you out if you use that word around me again".

"As far as I'm concerned, what he did in those days—and they were hard days, in 1937—made it possible for Negroes to have their chance in baseball and other fields."
—Lionel Hampton on Benny Goodman

From www.pbs.org :

In July 1935, after playing together in a jam session, Goodman asked Teddy Wilson to record with Krupa and himself. that summer, as the Benny Goodman Trio, they recorded four classic sides of jazz chamber music. Goodman's solo on After You've Gone from that session is an example of his mature style — his flawless playing utilizes almost the complete range of the instrument, and his disciplined explorations of the harmony and fondness for the blue thirds reveals the technical mastery and controlled expression that formed the essence of his art.

After the conclusion of the Let's Dance series in May 1935 and a disappointing reception at an engagement at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, Goodman's band embarked on its first tour under the auspices of Willard Alexander and the Music Corporation of America. The trip culminated in the now historic performance on August 21 before a capacity crowd at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, which was broadcast nationwide to great critical and popular acclaim, and is often cited as the beginning of the swing era. Later that year, while appearing at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, Goodman began a series of important early jazz concerts in America. For the last of these, Easter Sunday 1936, he brought in Wilson from New York.

In August 1936, the Benny Goodman Trio became a quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton. The group made its first recording, Moonglow, on August 21. In 1936-9, Goodman's band reached the peak of its success. It began with a series of CBS broadcasts, The Camel Caravan, which continued for more than three years. They made their first films, The Big Broadcast of 1937 and Hollywood Hotel, and on March 3, 1937 began a three-week engagement at the Paramount Theater in New York.

By 1939 not only had Benny Goodman fronted one of jazz's most popular big bands, but he'd also created highly influential "chamber jazz" with his legendary trio and quartet. Once he heard the young guitar pioneer Charlie Christian, Goodman immediately expanded his small group to a sextet to accommodate him (along with bassist Artie Bernstein). Goodman's recordings with Christian remain some of the genre's most significant work, largely because of the impact of Christian's revolutionary guitar. In fact, many of these original tunes are based on Christian's own "pet licks," showing us just how logical and well constructed his improvisations are. Christian's harmonically advanced single-note solos are a precursor to bebop, but even more importantly, he establishes the guitar as an equal partner to the horn soloists. No longer relegated to rhythm work, Christian's lines are every bit as awe-inspiring as those of the leading blowers of the day. Christian is simply inventing the vocabulary of modern jazz guitar. The sextet is fleshed out by the likes of Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, and Cootie Williams, and Goodman, never one to be outdone by his sidemen, plays with the vibrancy and the sort of "relaxed precision" that only he was capable of. --Marc Greilsamer


I'm not always fast to admit what a huge fan of Goodman's work I am. It always used to be cooler to favour the lesser known groups. Listening through all of this reminds me just how amazing these recordings were, and are. A lot of these tunes on this list are from broadcasts. It shows just how great they were live, and not just in the studio......give 'em a listen, I think you'll enjoy it :)

Avalon 1937 (Quartet) (b'cast)
Flying home (Sextet)
Body and soul (Take 1) trio
Rose Room (Sextet)
Body and soul (take 2) trio
Who? (trio) 1937
AC-DC current no 1 (sextet)
Soft winds (sextet)
Nobody's sweetheart (trio)
Too good to be true (trio w/ Helen Ward)
AC-DC current no 2 (sextet)
Dinah (quartet) 1937
Charlie's dream (sextet)
Stompin' at the Savoy (take 1) (quartet)
Where or when (trio) (b'cast)
who? (trio) (b'cast)
Avalon (quartet) 1937 (b'cast)
Lady be good  (trio) (b'cast) 1937
Body and soul (Carnegie Hall 1938)
Flying home 2 (Sextet)
Stealin' apples (b'cast)  (quartet)
A handful of keys (b'cast) (quartet)
Body and soul 3 (trio) 1937
Dinah (quartet) (b'cast) 1937
Ding dong Daddy (b'cast) (quartet)
Everybody loves my baby (b'cast) (quartet)
Limehouse blues (b'cast) (quartet)
More than you know (b'cast) (trio) 1937
Nagasaki (b'cast) (quartet) 1937
Roses in December 1937 (b'cast) (trio)
Veini Veini 1937 (b'cast) (quartet)
Vibraphone blues 1937 (b'cast) (quartet)
Where or when  (trio) 1937 (b'cast)
Whispering in the dark 1937 (b'cast) (trio)
Yours and mine 1937 (quartet) (b'cast)
Moonglow 1936 (quartet)
Moonglow 2 1936  (quartet)
Whispering 1936 (trio)


http://www.mediafire.com/?2cj3poaq6fxmczs


Someday sweetheart (trio)
Til tom special (sextet)
Gone with what wind (sextet)
All my life (trio w/ Helen Ward) 1936
Oh, lady be good (trio)
Six appeal (sextet)
Moonglow 4 (1936)
Vibraphone blues (quartet) 1937
Sweet Sue-just you (quartet) 1937
Lester's dream (sextet)
My melancholy babe (quartet)
Tiger rag (take 1) (quartet)
Stompin' at the Savoy (Take 2) (quartet)
Can't help lovin' that man (b'cast) (trio) 1937
Sweet sue-just you (b'cast) 1937
Bei mir bist du schon 1937 (quartet)


http://www.mediafire.com/?ou4dlpkbl3366ub