02 March 2021

Benny Goodman Goes Bop, Re-Learns Clarinet – Phantom Dancer 2 March 2021

Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show

Benny Goodman goes Bop from live 1948-49 radio is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV – is hosted by me, Greg Poppleton and heard online and over 20 radio stations.

Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 2 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

BENNY

By the late 1940s, as you’ll hear on today’s Phantom Dancer, Goodman had moved from swing to bop, gaining praise from jazz critics for his recordings.

Goodman had broken up his swing orchestra in 1947, although he continued to assemble big bands and small groups for touring and recording throughout the remainder of his career.

He halfheartedly embraced the bebop movement and in the late 1940s made several recordings with noted bop musicians. Although Goodman’s solos were firmly in the old school, the blend of the two styles was effective.

BOP

His orchestra and his small groups became bop oriented. He hired many from the bop second wave to create the right sound, including Buddy Greco (who also sang), Zoot Sims and Wardell Gray.

For bop clarinet, Goodman was much influenced by Swedish clarinetist Stan Hasselgard. For some arrangements and bebop advice, he went to pianist Mary Lou Williams.

Interestingly, during this time, Goodman changed his clarinet technique,
“In 1949, when he was 40, Goodman decided to study with Reginald Kell, one of the world’s leading classical clarinetists. To do so, he had to change his entire technique: instead of holding the mouthpiece between his front teeth and lower lip, as he had done since he first took a clarinet in hand 30 years earlier, Goodman learned to adjust his embouchure to the use of both lips and even to use new fingering techniques. He had his old finger calluses removed and started to learn how to play his clarinet again—almost from scratch.”

Initially, he enjoyed the humour in bop, saying about a Thelonius Monk piece, “I like it, I like that very much. I like the piece and I like the way he played it. I think he’s got a sense of humour and he’s got some good things there.”

But within eighteen months bop frustrated Goodman and he returned to swing. In fact, he had changed his mind so completely about bop that in 1953 he was quoted, “Maybe bop has done more to set music back for years than anything. Basically it’s all wrong. It’s not even knowing the scales. Bop was mostly publicity and people figuring angles.”

Read trumpeter Al Stewart’s first hand account of playing in Benny Goodman’s bop band

2 MARCH PLAY LIST