Benny Goodman's Clarinet
Late in his career, jazz musician Benny Goodman favored a Parisian “licorice stick” as his instrument of choice
- By Owen Edwards
- Smithsonian magazine, April 2009, Subscribe
Audio Gallery
The Jazzy Sounds of Benny Goodman
Listen to Goodman at his greatest in recordings selected by curator John Edward Hasse
In the hierarchy of musical instruments, the clarinet tends to get short shrift—at least compared with the violin, cello or piano. But the inauguration of Barack Obama raised the instrument's profile when Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Gabriela Montero before a global television audience estimated at a billion viewers. (The fact that cold weather forced the musicians to finger-sync to their own recording hardly diminished the clarinet's star turn.)
The clarinet's other notable high notes include 1771, when Mozart composed the first of his clarinet works, a divertimento, and 1920, when 11-year-old Beno Goodman first picked up the instrument in a Chicago tenement. Beno, the ninth of 12 children born to Russian-immigrant parents, would of course become Benny Goodman, and would perform some of the greatest music of the big-band or any other era.
One of Goodman's clarinets now resides within the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH), where Jazz Appreciation Month is celebrated each April and where Goodman's centenary year—he was born May 30, 1909—will be enthusiastically observed next month. In the hands of a man who was equally at home in jazz and classical music, the clarinet was—to use its affectionate nickname—one sweet licorice stick.
"Benny Goodman was the most popular clarinetist in American history," says curator John Edward Hasse. "As a clarinetist and a band leader, he played a key role in moving jazz from the margins of American society to the mainstream. He led the most influential, for a time the most popular, and perhaps the most polished of the big bands of the swing era."
Goodman's NMAH clarinet was crafted in the workshops of the legendary Parisian woodwinds manufacturer Buffet Crampon in 1967. The maestro used it during the latter part of a long career. "He was playing in smaller jazz groups by then," says Russ Connor, author of Benny Goodman: Listen to His Legacy. In the years after the big-band heyday, Connor adds, Goodman "had more time to play classical music. He was very choosy about instruments and reeds; even though he'd played Selmer clarinets and advertised for them earlier in his career, he had a natural affinity for the Buffet."
In 1990, four years after Goodman's death at age 76, his daughters Rachel Goodman Edelson and Benjie Alice Goodman Lasseau donated the instrument, along with a music stand and chair used by their father during practice sessions, to the Smithsonian. "He practiced all the time," recalls Lasseau, "and he always seemed to have a clarinet handy. He even practiced during the commercial breaks of the World Series."
Goodman performed until the end of his life. "He died of a heart attack in his New York City apartment in June 1986 while rehearsing for a Mostly Mozart concert," says Susan Satz, business manager for the Goodman estate.
Goodman's crossover genius—he brought classical training to jazz, even as he raised the stature of jazz and expanded its audience—was on brilliant display in the now-legendary Carnegie Hall concert of January 16, 1938. On that memorable night, Goodman brought his big band, including such greats as drummer Gene Krupa, trumpeter Harry James and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, to the great Manhattan bastion of the classics. When Goodman and crew lit up the hall with hot-jazz composer Louis Prima's number "Sing, Sing, Sing," people began dancing in the aisles, a first for the venerable symphony space.
"I grew up listening to all of [Goodman's] recordings," McGill told me in a phone interview after the Obama inaugural. "His recordings of works by Aaron Copland, Morton Gould, Igor Stravinsky and others are still available, so he's still enormously influential. Goodman was such a superstar that you really have to listen."
Owen Edwards is a freelance writer and author of the book Elegant Solutions.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Mozart composed only two clarinet works. This version has been updated.
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Comments (10)
About a year ago I was in a used record store in the north end of town. The owner there has crates of old LPs, many of which probably haven't been converted to a digital release. I found a copy of the 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, and it appealed to me partly because listening to Artie Shaw got me interested in the clarinet and big band. The 2 record set is in very good condition, I'm guessing it was pressed 30 - 40 yrs ago, and the best $15 I've spent in a long time. I listen to it regularly, and very loudly at that. I even went out and bought a clarinet and am teaching myself to play! My only regret is that I didn't discover this years ago.
Posted by Jeffrey Foote on April 6,2012 | 01:15 PM
I am working on a book on the sculptor/jeweler Clare Yares.
In mid career in Arizona, Clare had several encounters/appointments with Benny Goodman. I can only imagine the conversations as there are no records except we know that Clare prepared for these meetings with relish and great enthusiasm.
They had to have talked music-jazz,swing etc and Clare's studio home was wired in every room for such music, and each room served a certain need for a visual artist- his photography room, his jewelry workshop, etc yet all the trappings of his youthful years were also there to experience/hear..see....musical instruments abounded and as a young man from Minnesota centered on jazz as he played professionally through WWII in the Pacific Theater.
Their conversations about their separate lives converged in these private meetings during which time Clare made special cufflinks and studs for Benny, was commissioned to make sculptures for a son in LA (?) a daughter Rachel wholived in AZ. My work includes documenting the visual artwork of Clare Yares during the period of 1950-2000 until his death in 2009.
I would appreciate hearing from Mr. Goodman's relatives to ascertain if the sculptures are still in the possession of the family.
In addition I would welcome any recollection, conversations with their Dad about these appointments while in AZ to visit with Clare are a part of the cataloging and the book which is funded by the Cattletrack Arts and Preservation Foundation in Arizona.
Joanne Rapp
Phoenix Arizona
Posted by Joanne Rapp on February 12,2012 | 03:37 PM
I have a 1934 selmer paris B flat clarinet and once heard benny goodman used the same kind for a while... i haven't been able to confirm this, however.
Posted by Kathryn on October 20,2009 | 04:29 PM
Benny Goodman was simply super. I was first privileged to hear him at the Casino de Parie, in New York, where I was a waiter. I was so enthralled with the band that my customers failed to get the service they deserved.
Posted by Simon on April 12,2009 | 10:08 PM
I can never forget the thrill of seeing and hearing the Benny Goodman Orchestra at the Chicago Theater in about 1941-42. We could see a movie and a "Big Band" for about a quarter or less and stay for two shows if we went at 10 a.m., then run around to the alley and get autographs as the musicians left. One of my old neighbors remembered taking lessons at Hull House and Benny was one of the prize students there. I wish I still had those autographs! Prue Backlin
Posted by Prudence Backlin on April 10,2009 | 11:19 AM
Shortly after WWII, my father installed "Hi Fi" and we started buy and listening to LP's, both classical and jazz. The most exciting album was the 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz concert that had been "unearthed" from some archival collection somewhere, and of course, the rest is history, from the point of view of Benny Goodmans place in the pantheon of great musicians. My late brother, Lee Segel, and I would put the album on our Gerard change, turn up the volume on our Bogun tuner, and shake the house because the speaker had been installed in the inside wall of our living room, using the back hall as a baffle chamber. This was when our parents were out of the house, of course. Several years later, I met Rachel Goodman when she was a graduate student, relatively newly arrived in Boston. I was single, a medical student, impressed by this tall, attractive and serious young woman who mentioned that she would be pretty busy with her studies, and her family was gathering for a concert appearance of the father with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I didn't get an invitation, and foolishly, I didn't have enough imagination to buy a ticket to the concert, and perhaps, bump into the Goodmans as if by chance. That was about 52 years ago, and some of images may be a bit blurred, but not the essentials. If you get to read this, Rachel, Hello from Pittsburgh! David Segel!
Posted by David Segel MD on March 31,2009 | 09:42 PM
I Found this website for Benny Goodman Complete Discography: http://www.discoogle.com/wiki/Goodman%2C_Benny_Discography with catalog numbers, photo vinyls 78rpm, mono/stereo... Bye!!!!
Posted by Andriana on March 30,2009 | 03:26 PM
I was really born too late. I didn't learn about swing music until I was in college in the 1950s, so I had a lot of catching up to do. I have Benny's music on 78s, 45s, LPs, and cds, as well as a video of the movie made about him, starring Steve Allen.
I saw and heard Benny live twice. The first time was a date I shant forget: December 1, 1956, the same day I bought my first new car--a '57 Chevy Bel Air Sport Coupe, in which my buddy and I drove to the Shrine Audutorium, in Los Angeles to hear the "King of Swing." The second time was a later date at the Theater in the Round, in Anaheim, CA, where Peggy Lee was also a performer.
Thanks for the tribute . . .
Ray Williams
Posted by Ray E. Williams on March 30,2009 | 03:05 PM
I enjoyed the piece on Beenny Goodman and would like to contact Mr. Edwards regarding a similar project. Bill Reed
Posted by william reed on March 28,2009 | 10:09 PM
Much appreciated article. He, helped enormously in bringing clarinet performance and music to a wide audience.
Posted by richard smith on March 22,2009 | 04:19 PM