NEWS MUSIC AND DRAMA

A Few Of Goodman's Stellar Sidemen As The Movies Captured Them

«itienten Gene Kruj i, Harry Jame«, and Ziggy Elman, Gootlman composition called HwW’a Dream. from left to right- Î iird picture. from the 20th Century- hi« little daughter. public interest. Chambei jazz, whetted a musical appetite that slack by expanding. His early Bouquets' To stemming from a meeting between Benny <^ahed in on. Just how far training had been in classical mu­ Richards Named Goodman ano Teddy Wilson at the Goodman band would have sic and now, recognized as u mas Mildred Bailey’s, became a highly gone had Fletcher Henderson not ter of his instrument, he ventured Discovery Director Benny Goodman acceptable Lionel Hampton, Charlie In any event, it was with Hen- those field - to look askance at this rector of Discovery records. The skies with Pollack men and Red Christian, and Cootie Willliams «le -ion’s arrangements many of invasion. They smelled a slight spot ha> been vacant since the Nichols. -Goodman modi thi’ first effec­ them strait it out of Henderson’r odor of publicity stunt. But ever resignation of Phil Moore. The Goodman story, like that tive rent in the idea that musi­ personal library — that Goodman the years, starting with a record­ Richards’ first assignment will ui Bix, has bee one of the leg­ cians bad to be grouped accord­ got started and the idiom was ing with the Budapest String be to prepare a series of albums ends of jazz, sufficiently so to have ing to racial distinctions. 'iicceasfully earned on by Jimmy quartet and followed by personal similar t. the sessions on which been the Pasis of a novel of a few Mundy, Edgar Sampson, Mary appearances and other recordings, he backed Dizzy Gillespie with » years, Little Gate. New Horizon* concert-style group containing Having sent the dance band Lou Williams, and, later and in Benny has won them over and has a more advanced vein, by Eddie strings Other top soloists noted JuM Plain Drama business spinning Goodman set up a second career for him­ Sauter. self. for distinctive instrumental styles For sheer drama, nothing in opened up new fields by taking his will be presented in the same any band’s history can match the Benny was also fortunate—or, Today he divides his time be­ crew into Carnegie hall in 1938. more probably, astute — in as beginnings of the Goodman band Unlike Paul Whiteman s earlier tween his quintet, which appears wbe i _ af • ।1tsultory fngigt concertizing, Goodmai gave his sembhng a succession of sidemen on a weekly television show, and wh<- could play the bejabbers out his longhair performances. In No­ the same time, people say, ‘How mente at Billy Ros>’s Music hall conceit audience the same stuff he can you do it? How can you keep and the Roosevelt hotel in New gave lus dance audiences—as evi- of these nrrangement«. The now- vember, with the NBC Symphony, fumiliar names, which were new he gav» the first performann of it up?* So when you stop doing it, York, they started out on a cross uenevd by the complete recording they look amazed nnd say, ‘Why country trek, aying egg after and unknown when they first sat a pie«1 he had commissioned from of the concert recently released on down to play with Benny, would Aamn Copland, and 1» aren’t ynn dninar it?’ ” nuswalk egg, bedeviled by book­ LP -veovdE by Columbia. take up a lot of Down Beat’s he appeared with the Philadelphia Added to this, ins last expe­ ing agency and operators to “quit Much of what he accomplished valuable »pace if listed complete­ orchestra playing a piece w-ritten rience with a band was none too ¡flaying that stuff,” threatened was made possible by the fact that ly—but, for an instance, Bunny for him by Paul Hindemith. Al­ happy. This was the bop-tinged with cancellation after G»di first he . uddenly shot to such heights Berigan, Harry James, Gene though his longhair appearances crew (“But you wouldn’t call it -Hight m Denver—and then, at th« of fame that the public would fol­ Krupa. I.ionel Hampton, Ji-Ei are infrequent, preparation for bop band, would you?”) which he nadir of morale, reaching their low wherevei he led, would _ at Stacy, Teddy Wilson, Mel Powell, them takes up most of his time, broke up more than a year ago. last stop, the Palomar In Los least sample things which, coming Charbt* Christian, Ziggy Elman, but he has n< intention of giving Hard Thinking Angeles, to unexpectedly find an fr-m someone else, mgM draw and Hymie Schertzer. Not to up the boots he geto playing with However, th«* immediate success audience waiting for them, heated only a coterie of addicts. overlook the sex appeal side, his combo. up by the records which had pre­ To reach these heights, he mixed of the LP version of his 1938 con- which included Helen Forrest and “Playing classical music keeps cert has prompted some hard ceded th" band. his own masterful musicianship, Peggy Lee. you in shape for jazz,” he says. Came then the deluge—tbe tri­ proper amounts if taste and show­ thinking at Columbia records Couldn’t Go Higher “Those finger exercises, they can’t about cuttini some new Goodman umphal return trip capped by the manship, plus the fact that the hurt you.” stand at the Hotel Penrjsylvama’s public, whether it realized it or To hit it so big und so young, big band sides in this fame 1938 Madhatt. - room and, 'a‘er, the not, was ripe for what he had to as Benny did, is frequently the No Big Baud« vein. firsI and greater Paramour t offer. prelude to tragedy in some de­ He has no immediate intention This, of course, would be with theater stampede. , Fletcher'» Role gree. When there’d no place left of fronting a '»and again, feels he a studio band. It would also be a The revolution was on by then. The Casa Loma band had been to go but d’wn, gravity too often hi»-. had his fill of one-niters. new departure in record company The staid and heavy-handed ar­ km-eking on the tame door before takes over. Benny, as a band “It’s a funny thing,” Benny thinking. Imagine it: Benny Good rangements of the past would no it bogged down in Kenny Sar- leader, couldn’t stay up so far on muses. “When you’re playing a mail playing in the style of Benny longer do. Sidemer, and what they gentisms and la«kadaisicality. But top forever and ne didn't. But theater and doubling into a club Goodman! One is gassed by the were playing became matters of primarily the Negro bands had Benny, the musician, took up the >-r hotel and making records all at lucidity of it all.

mo ata then unknown, to ting with hit band. Second shut rhowa two-third* of the Benny Goodman sextet at WNYC in March, 1941. Front the left are Goodman, Chariir Christian, Georgie Auld, and Cootie William«. Cootie’» •witch from Duke Ellington’s band to Goodman**, several month* before, had caused great con«ternation among jazz anti fans who admired the statu* quo, »nd in»pirrd troubadour