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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Happy 100th Birthday, Benny Goodman
Posted by Jill | 6:51 AM
WKCR, the radio station of Columbia University in New York, has been celebrating the Benny Goodman centennial for two weeks, playing the man's entire discography. As I said in a comment to DCap in response to his inexplicable inclusion of some of the Worst Songs Ever Recorded in a video sampler designed to prove the superiority of anything recorded in the 1960's to anything being made today, he's starting to sound like my late father-in-law, who thought that Glenn Miller was the greatest musician who ever lived and that Big Band swing was the only good music ever made.

Under the "You Always Hate What Your Parents Listen To" rule, this meant that Mr. Brilliant has always hated big band swing. I have been free of this burden (though I was probably 40 before I could bear to listen to anything written before 1800 because MY parents were classical music buffs), and so I am able to say that while Glenn Miller is too schmaltzy for my taste, I think he was on to something where Benny Goodman was concerned. Goodman's Wikipedia entry is a good, comprehensive account of just how important Goodman was to the development of American popular music from the 1920's and 30's and beyond.

Here's Goodman and his band performing one of my favorites from the Goodman oeuvre, "King Porter Stomp" at Wolf Trap in 1977, with John Bunch On piano, Cal Collins on guitar, Buddy Tate and Al Klink On sax, Warren Vache On trumpet, amd Mickey Mcgieve On trombone.


...and a short version of "Sing Sing Sing" from Hollywood Hotel (1937), showcasing the genius of Gene Krupa on drums:



I'm thinking that bad economic times warrant another swing revival. How about you?

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Anonymous ShortWoman said...
There's a trend you should check out called "electro-lounge." You know how the "kids these days" are chopping up old 80s songs and making them into new dance tracks? Imagine doing something similar to Dean Martin or Nancy Wilson.
5/30/09, 1:26 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
Old musician joke:
Musician 1: I have good news & bad news.
Musician 2: What's the bad news?
Musician 1: Benny Goodman is dead.
Musician 2: What's the good news?
Musician 1: He suffered terribly at the end.

As a good word for Miller, individual songs like "Elmer's Tune" & "String of Pearls" sound pretty swell heard as pop tunes for dancing rather than comparing them to jazz oriented bands. Your late father-in-law, no disrespect intended, was not a truly discerning aficionado of big band swing. He was merely a fan swayed by sentiment.
5/30/09, 3:20 PM  
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