Benny Goodman summary

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Benny Goodman, orig. Benjamin David Goodman, (born May 30, 1909, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died June 13, 1986, New York, N.Y.), U.S. jazz clarinetist and leader of the most popular band of the swing era. Goodman formed a big band in 1934, using arrangements by Fletcher Henderson. The band’s sensational broadcast from Los Angeles’s Palomar Ballroom in 1935 is seen as the beginning of the swing era. Goodman’s band featured trumpeters Bunny Berigan, Ziggy Elman, and Harry James and drummer Gene Krupa, all of whom would establish big bands of their own. Goodman’s small group was among the first racially integrated ensembles known to a wide public. Goodman was also a noted classical clarinetist who championed 20th-century music. His virtuosity and immense popularity earned him the sobriquet “King of Swing.”

Grammy Award Summary

Grammy Award, any of a series of awards presented annually in the United States by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS; commonly called the Recording Academy) or the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (LARAS; commonly called the Latin Recording Academy) to recognize

Duke Ellington's original 14-member band

swing Summary

Swing, in music, both the rhythmic impetus of jazz music and a specific jazz idiom prominent between about 1935 and the mid-1940s—years sometimes called the swing era. Swing music has a compelling momentum that results from musicians’ attacks and accenting in relation to fixed beats. Swing rhythms

band Summary

Band, (from Middle French bande, “troop”), in music, an ensemble of musicians playing chiefly woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, in contradistinction to an orchestra, which contains stringed instruments. Apart from this specific designation, the word band has wide vernacular application,

clarinet Summary

Clarinet, single-reed woodwind instrument used orchestrally and in military and brass bands and possessing a distinguished solo repertory. It is usually made of African blackwood and has a cylindrical bore of about 0.6 inch (1.5 cm) terminating in a flared bell. All-metal instruments are made but