WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.180 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tuning 00:00:02.180 --> 00:00:05.519 our frequency to the 1930s. But I want to be 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:07.540 clear right off the bat. We aren't just talking 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:09.980 about music today. We're not just talking about, 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.160 you know, catchy tunes or people dancing the 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:16.199 Lindy Hop. No, not at all. We are talking about... 00:00:16.390 --> 00:00:19.149 a cultural explosion. It really was a seismic 00:00:19.149 --> 00:00:20.870 shift. I mean, if you look at the source material, 00:00:21.149 --> 00:00:23.750 the biographies, the discographies, all the historical 00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:27.230 accounts, you realize that what happened in 1935 00:00:27.230 --> 00:00:30.730 wasn't just a new musical trend. No. It was a 00:00:30.730 --> 00:00:34.030 complete restructuring of American pop culture. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:36.289 We're talking about the king of swing, Benny 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:38.570 Goodman. Now, if you're like me, when you hear 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:41.429 that name, you might picture this polite sort 00:00:41.429 --> 00:00:44.649 of bespectacled guy in a tuxedo playing the clarinet. 00:00:44.710 --> 00:00:46.469 Right, the classic image. Maybe he looks like 00:00:46.469 --> 00:00:48.549 a math teacher or, I don't know, an accountant. 00:00:48.670 --> 00:00:50.369 And technically you're correct. That is what 00:00:50.369 --> 00:00:53.469 he looked like. But you are missing the wild, 00:00:53.609 --> 00:00:57.149 complicated, and frankly, revolutionary story 00:00:57.149 --> 00:00:59.969 that was going on underneath that tuxedo. Exactly. 00:01:00.409 --> 00:01:03.369 We're looking at a pivotal force who changed 00:01:03.369 --> 00:01:06.430 how America listened, how America danced, and... 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.299 Maybe most importantly, how America started to 00:01:09.299 --> 00:01:12.540 deal with race in the public sphere. He was such 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:15.019 an unlikely hero for a revolution. A completely 00:01:15.019 --> 00:01:17.040 unlikely hero. It's a massive story. We're going 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.769 to unpack how. A poor immigrant kid from the 00:01:20.769 --> 00:01:24.109 absolute slums of Chicago became this global 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:26.409 superstar. Right. And we're going to look at 00:01:26.409 --> 00:01:29.870 how a weird quirk of time zones, I mean, literally 00:01:29.870 --> 00:01:31.849 just the mechanics of the clock, launched the 00:01:31.849 --> 00:01:34.430 entire swing era. And we have to talk about the 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:36.829 cost of that success. Because for all the joy 00:01:36.829 --> 00:01:38.890 you hear in that music, Goodman was known for 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:42.549 this paradoxical personality. He was a perfectionist 00:01:42.549 --> 00:01:44.409 to the point of obsession. Right. Famous for 00:01:44.409 --> 00:01:46.629 something called The Ray, which absolutely terrified 00:01:46.629 --> 00:01:49.049 his musicians. Oh, The Ray. I've read about this 00:01:49.049 --> 00:01:51.290 and it sounds like actual psychological warfare. 00:01:51.549 --> 00:01:53.530 We are definitely getting into that. We have 00:01:53.530 --> 00:01:56.230 to. So buckle up. We're diving deep into the 00:01:56.230 --> 00:01:58.890 life, the music, and the very complicated legacy 00:01:58.890 --> 00:02:01.430 of Benny Goodman. Let's start at the very beginning. 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:04.400 Because the rags to riches element here isn't 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:07.280 just some cliche. It's essential to understanding 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.659 his drive. I agree. You cannot understand Benny 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:13.819 Goodman without understanding the sheer desperation 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:16.159 of his childhood. Right. So let's set the scene. 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:20.419 Benny Goodman was born in 1909 in Chicago. He 00:02:20.419 --> 00:02:22.979 wasn't just from a humble background. He was 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:27.740 the ninth of 12 children. 12 children. Just think 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:30.870 about that number. And his parents, David and 00:02:30.870 --> 00:02:33.189 Dora, were Jewish immigrants from the Russian 00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:36.349 Empire, specifically from Warsaw and Kaunas. 00:02:36.469 --> 00:02:38.349 And they came to the U .S. with almost nothing. 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:40.610 Absolutely nothing. They were escaping persecution, 00:02:40.930 --> 00:02:42.789 just looking for any kind of foothold they could 00:02:42.789 --> 00:02:44.830 get. And they ended up in the Maxwell Street 00:02:44.830 --> 00:02:47.610 neighborhood. Now, for anyone who isn't familiar 00:02:47.610 --> 00:02:50.229 with, you know, early 20th century Chicago, paint 00:02:50.229 --> 00:02:52.090 a picture for us. What did Maxwell Street look 00:02:52.090 --> 00:02:54.520 like? It was known as the ghetto. It was an overcrowded 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:57.060 slum right near the railroad yards and the factories. 00:02:57.300 --> 00:03:01.360 So loud. Incredibly loud. Imagine the smell of 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:04.379 the stockyards, that sort of metallic, bloody 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:07.439 scent of the slaughterhouses just hanging over 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:10.280 the neighborhood. It was smoky. It was packed 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:13.819 with immigrants, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:17.060 Jewish, all crammed into these tiny tenements. 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:20.439 So no privacy, no money, and just constant noise. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.219 Exactly. The sources described their apartment 00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:26.319 as just bursting at the seams. And money was 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:28.560 a constant crushing problem. Yeah. There were 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:30.120 days when there wasn't enough heat, days when 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:32.860 food was really scarce. But here's what's fascinating 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:35.979 to me. In the middle of all that grinding poverty, 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:38.759 you have David Goodman, the father. The father 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:40.840 seems like the central figure in this whole early 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:43.340 chapter. He really is. He was a tailor, you know, 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:46.039 working endlessly in sweatshops, shoveling snow, 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:47.919 doing absolutely whatever he could to make ends 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.639 meet. Right. But he had this vision for his children. 00:03:51.210 --> 00:03:53.530 He saw the poverty around him, the gangs, the 00:03:53.530 --> 00:03:56.150 dead end labor jobs, and he wanted a way out 00:03:56.150 --> 00:03:58.569 for his kids. And he decided music was the ticket. 00:03:58.729 --> 00:04:01.569 He decided music was the vehicle. Which is interesting, 00:04:01.650 --> 00:04:03.870 right? Yeah, because today we think of music 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:06.250 as such a risky career. It's like, don't become 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:09.270 a musician, become a doctor or a lawyer. Exactly. 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:12.610 But for David Goodman, music was a trade. It 00:04:12.610 --> 00:04:14.990 was a skilled labor that paid a lot better than 00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:17.790 digging ditches. Precisely. He used to take the 00:04:17.790 --> 00:04:20.470 kids to these free band concerts in Douglas Park 00:04:20.470 --> 00:04:23.389 on Sundays. And that was Benny's first exposure 00:04:23.389 --> 00:04:27.149 to live professional performance. Wow. You have 00:04:27.149 --> 00:04:29.310 to imagine, for a little kid living in a gray, 00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:32.850 dirty tenement, seeing these men in crisp uniforms 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:35.910 playing these shiny brass instruments. It must 00:04:35.910 --> 00:04:37.410 have looked like they were from another planet. 00:04:37.610 --> 00:04:39.529 It must have looked like dignity. Like a way 00:04:39.529 --> 00:04:42.470 out. So in 1919, when Benny is 10 years old, 00:04:42.629 --> 00:04:45.829 the father hears about an opportunity. He hears 00:04:45.829 --> 00:04:47.990 about free music classes at the Kehila Jacob 00:04:47.990 --> 00:04:50.230 Synagogue. And he jumps on it. He doesn't hesitate 00:04:50.230 --> 00:04:53.230 for a second. He marches Benny and two of his 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:55.550 older brothers, Harry and Freddie, right down 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:57.689 to the synagogue to enroll. And here is where 00:04:57.689 --> 00:05:00.540 fate just steps right in. This is one of those 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.740 classic sliding doors moments in history. It 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:06.060 really is. If this had gone just slightly differently, 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:09.620 the entire sound of the 1930s would have changed. 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:12.720 It's a great story. So picture the scene. It's 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:16.560 1919. The synagogue basement is probably, you 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:19.579 know, chaotic, full of shouting kids and tired 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:22.399 volunteers. Right. And they open up these crates 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.250 of donated used instruments. This isn't some 00:05:26.250 --> 00:05:29.009 carefully curated music school. It's basically 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:31.529 a supply dump. It's just a scramble for whatever's 00:05:31.529 --> 00:05:34.930 in the box. Essentially. And the distribution 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:38.350 was based on one simple metric, physical size. 00:05:38.529 --> 00:05:41.629 How big you were. That's it. Harry, the biggest 00:05:41.629 --> 00:05:43.870 brother, he gets the tuba. Because he's the only 00:05:43.870 --> 00:05:45.689 one strong enough to lift it. Right. Freddie, 00:05:45.769 --> 00:05:47.649 the middle brother, he gets the trumpet. And 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:50.069 then there's Benny. He's 10. He's the youngest 00:05:50.069 --> 00:05:52.410 and he was small for his age, probably underfed, 00:05:52.470 --> 00:05:54.569 you know? Yeah. A tuba would have literally crushed 00:05:54.569 --> 00:05:56.810 him. So what's left in the box for the little 00:05:56.810 --> 00:05:59.310 guy? The clarinet. They handed him the clarinet 00:05:59.310 --> 00:06:00.750 because it was the only thing small enough for 00:06:00.750 --> 00:06:02.769 him to hold. Just think about that. I mean, if 00:06:02.769 --> 00:06:04.829 Benny Goodman had been a growth spurt kid, if 00:06:04.829 --> 00:06:06.810 he'd been six inches taller. He becomes a tuba 00:06:06.810 --> 00:06:09.589 player. He's a tuba player. And jazz history 00:06:09.589 --> 00:06:12.110 is completely rewritten. Completely. The tuba 00:06:12.110 --> 00:06:14.329 is the anchor of the band, right? It's the baseline. 00:06:14.470 --> 00:06:18.639 It goes oompa, oompa. But the clarinet. The clarinet 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.959 is a fluid, agile instrument. It's like a voice. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.079 It's akin to the violin or the human voice. It 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:27.300 can scream, it can whisper, it can run up and 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:30.500 down scales at lightning speed. That instrument 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:32.939 allowed Benny to develop a kind of virtuosity 00:06:32.939 --> 00:06:35.800 that a tuba simply would not have permitted. 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:38.600 So he gets this clarinet, and it turns out the 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.680 kid is an absolute prodigy. A virtuoso from the 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.120 jump. He took to it immediately. He started taking 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:46.680 lessons from Franz Schupp, who was a classically 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:48.860 trained clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:51.879 Orchestra. So this is a key detail. A very key 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:54.300 detail. Benny wasn't just learning jazz by ear. 00:06:54.459 --> 00:06:57.180 He was learning strict classical technique right 00:06:57.180 --> 00:06:59.319 from the beginning. He also joined the band at 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:01.680 Hull House. Hull House is legendary in Chicago 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:03.560 history. It was a settlement house for immigrants, 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.240 right? It was a lifeline. And joining that band 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:08.560 gave him the chance to spend two weeks at a summer 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:10.720 camp. The sources say this was literally his 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.420 only escape from the slums. For two weeks a year, 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:17.459 he saw trees, he breathed fresh air, and he realized 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:20.720 right then that music was his ticket out of the 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:22.819 ghetto. And he wasn't just playing for fun. He 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:27.029 got his union card at 13. 13 years old. Can you 00:07:27.029 --> 00:07:29.410 imagine? He was playing on excursion boats on 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:32.089 Lake Michigan, contributing to the family income. 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:34.769 He was a professional musician while he was still 00:07:34.769 --> 00:07:38.110 in short pants. He was bringing home money that 00:07:38.110 --> 00:07:41.350 put food on the table for 12 other people. That 00:07:41.350 --> 00:07:44.089 is a heavy, heavy burden for a 13 -year -old. 00:07:44.250 --> 00:07:47.269 Immense. But then tragedy strikes. And this, 00:07:47.269 --> 00:07:49.470 I think, is the moment that really cemented his 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:52.670 relentless, almost terrifying drive. It's the 00:07:52.670 --> 00:07:55.310 pivotal trauma of his life. He was 17 years old. 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:57.930 His career is just starting to take off. He's 00:07:57.930 --> 00:07:59.730 playing with Ben Pollack's orchestra, making 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:02.310 actual recordings. He's making it. He is actually 00:08:02.310 --> 00:08:05.709 making it. And his father, David Goodman, the 00:08:05.709 --> 00:08:07.670 man who dragged them to the synagogue, the man 00:08:07.670 --> 00:08:09.430 who dreamed this whole thing up for them. Yeah. 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:12.370 He steps off a streetcar and is hit and killed 00:08:12.370 --> 00:08:15.110 by a passing car. It's just devastating. Benny 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:17.129 later called it the saddest thing that ever happened 00:08:17.129 --> 00:08:20.129 in our family. But if we connect this to the 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:22.620 bigger picture of his psyche. His personality. 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:26.740 You have to realize his father never saw him 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.279 become a star. He never saw the dream come true. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:32.000 He died just before the breakthrough. And that 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.620 has to leave a permanent mark. A huge scar. It 00:08:35.620 --> 00:08:38.840 likely instilled this idea in him that music 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:41.700 wasn't just a hobby or an art form. It was survival. 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:44.899 It was life or death. Right. If Benny stopped 00:08:44.899 --> 00:08:47.159 practicing, if he stopped being the absolute 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:49.679 best, the family might starve. They might end 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:52.080 up right back in Maxwell Street. Failure was 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:55.159 just not an option. So he carries this weight 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:57.399 with him. He moves to New York City. He's doing 00:08:57.399 --> 00:08:59.600 session work, playing on the radio, playing in 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:02.279 Broadway pits. He's making a good living, especially 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.080 during the Depression, which is saying something. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.480 It really is. He's a first -call musician. If 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:09.460 you needed a clarinet solo for a recording, you 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:12.360 called Benny. But he wanted more. He wanted his 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:15.360 own band. And this brings us to the mid -30s 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:17.919 and the birth of the swing era. Now, before we 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:19.860 get to the big explosion at the Palomar, we need 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:21.799 to explain something technical because Swing 00:09:21.799 --> 00:09:24.600 wasn't just a vibe, you know. Right. It's not 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:27.200 just a feeling. It was a specific musical architecture. 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:29.639 Benny Goodman didn't invent it, but you could 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:32.179 argue he perfected it. And more importantly, 00:09:32.379 --> 00:09:34.980 he sold it to America. Right. And to understand 00:09:34.980 --> 00:09:36.820 this, we have to talk about Fletcher Henderson. 00:09:37.100 --> 00:09:41.139 OK, so Goodman forms his band. And in 1934, he 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:44.639 gets this big radio gig called Let's Dance. He 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.710 needs music, a lot of it. And he turns to Fletcher 00:09:47.710 --> 00:09:50.549 Henderson. Who was he? Fletcher Henderson was 00:09:50.549 --> 00:09:53.629 a brilliant African -American band leader and 00:09:53.629 --> 00:09:56.590 arranger. He had an orchestra that played this 00:09:56.590 --> 00:10:00.230 incredible, driving, powerful music. But it was 00:10:00.230 --> 00:10:02.730 the Great Depression. The Depression just decimated 00:10:02.730 --> 00:10:04.629 the record industry and the whole touring circuit. 00:10:04.850 --> 00:10:07.570 So Henderson was deep in debt and he had to disband 00:10:07.570 --> 00:10:10.190 his orchestra. So Goodman, who has this budget 00:10:10.190 --> 00:10:12.470 from the radio show. He hires Henderson to write 00:10:12.470 --> 00:10:15.049 arrangements for his band. Goodman even hired 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:17.509 Henderson's own band members to come teach his 00:10:17.509 --> 00:10:19.850 musicians how to play that style properly. He 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:21.830 basically bought the book of the Henderson band. 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:24.330 But what made those arrangements so special? 00:10:24.389 --> 00:10:26.850 What is the swing formula? It's all about call 00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:30.090 and response. So before this, a lot of jazz was 00:10:30.090 --> 00:10:32.450 collective improvisation. You know, everyone 00:10:32.450 --> 00:10:34.389 playing around the melody at once, like in the 00:10:34.389 --> 00:10:37.110 New Orleans style. Kind of a musical chaos. A 00:10:37.110 --> 00:10:40.169 beautiful chaos. Right. But chaos. Henderson 00:10:40.169 --> 00:10:43.350 organized it. He treated the brass section, the 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:46.850 trumpets and trombones, as one voice. Okay. And 00:10:46.850 --> 00:10:49.210 he treated the reed section, the saxophones and 00:10:49.210 --> 00:10:52.190 clarinets, as another voice. So they're almost 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:54.570 like two choirs talking to each other. Exactly. 00:10:54.610 --> 00:10:58.490 The brass shouts a riff. And the saxophones answer 00:10:58.490 --> 00:11:02.169 back. They trade these phrases back and forth 00:11:02.169 --> 00:11:05.409 over a steady four on the floor rhythm. It creates 00:11:05.409 --> 00:11:07.850 this tension. This incredible tension and release 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:09.850 that just makes you want to move. It's an engine. 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:12.950 And when Goodman's band, which was drilled to 00:11:12.950 --> 00:11:15.509 absolute perfection, played these Henderson charts, 00:11:15.690 --> 00:11:17.610 it was like a high performance machine. So he 00:11:17.610 --> 00:11:19.809 has the band. He has the music. Things are looking 00:11:19.809 --> 00:11:22.110 up. He's on the radio show Let's Dance playing 00:11:22.110 --> 00:11:24.529 this hot new music late at night. But then. But 00:11:24.529 --> 00:11:26.830 then the sponsor pulls out. There's a strike 00:11:26.830 --> 00:11:29.549 at Nabisco. The cookie company. The cookie company. 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:32.899 The show is canceled. And suddenly, Goodman has 00:11:32.899 --> 00:11:36.820 this very expensive band and no gig. So his agents 00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.679 book a cross -country tour to try and keep them 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.100 afloat. And frankly, we have to stress this. 00:11:42.259 --> 00:11:45.320 The tour was an absolute disaster. It was a catastrophe. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:49.500 You have to remember, in 1935, the popular music 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:52.360 in the Midwest and the East was what they called 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:56.360 sweet music. Like Guy Lombardo. Exactly. Polite, 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:59.259 melodic, very gentle dance music. It was pure 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:01.879 escapism. People wanted to be soothed during 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:03.720 the Depression. And here comes Benny Goodman 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:06.700 playing this aggressive, loud, hot jazz. And 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:08.860 people hated it. They hated it. They literally 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:11.809 demanded their money back. In Denver, the ballroom 00:12:11.809 --> 00:12:13.730 manager told them to stop playing that noise 00:12:13.730 --> 00:12:16.049 or he'd fire them right there on the spot. Wow. 00:12:16.269 --> 00:12:18.309 By the time they reached Pismo Beach, California, 00:12:18.649 --> 00:12:21.289 the band was completely demoralized. They were 00:12:21.289 --> 00:12:23.330 broke. They thought the tour was the end of the 00:12:23.330 --> 00:12:25.450 road. Imagine the mood on that bus. They're driving 00:12:25.450 --> 00:12:27.870 across the desert thinking, while we tried, guess 00:12:27.870 --> 00:12:30.070 it's back to session work in New York. And they 00:12:30.070 --> 00:12:34.669 arrive in Los Angeles on August 21st, 1935. The 00:12:34.669 --> 00:12:37.440 Palomar Ballroom. This is the day. This is the 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:40.120 D -Day of the swing era. They set up their instruments. 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:43.000 They are exhausted. They are expecting another 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.759 hostile crowd who just wants to hear waltzes. 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:48.919 So Benny, being cautious, he starts the first 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.860 set with the sweet stuff, the safe stock arrangements. 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:54.559 He's just trying to play it safe, not get booed 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:56.480 off the stage again. And the reaction from the 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.730 crowd? Silence. Total indifference. The crowd 00:12:59.730 --> 00:13:01.590 is just kind of milling around, not dancing. 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:03.809 It's looking like another massive failure. And 00:13:03.809 --> 00:13:06.929 then the drummer, Gene Krupa, who is a legend 00:13:06.929 --> 00:13:09.730 in his own right, he looks over at Benny and 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:12.929 he says something that should be on a T -shirt. 00:13:13.049 --> 00:13:15.309 He says, if we're going to die, Benny, let's 00:13:15.309 --> 00:13:17.490 die playing our own thing. That is the moment. 00:13:17.549 --> 00:13:20.590 I mean, the courage to fail on your own terms. 00:13:20.870 --> 00:13:24.029 Yeah. Goodman just nods. He tells the band to 00:13:24.029 --> 00:13:26.639 pull out the Fletcher Henderson charts. The real 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.759 stuff. Yeah. Kicks off King Porter stomp. What 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:32.379 happens? Bedlam. Absolute bedlam. The crowd rushes 00:13:32.379 --> 00:13:34.559 the bandstand. They're cheering, screaming, dancing 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:36.440 like they've lost their minds. The band must 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:37.919 have been in shock. They were shocked. They're 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:39.320 looking at each other like, where do these people 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:43.059 come from? Okay, so why? Why did Los Angeles 00:13:43.059 --> 00:13:46.679 lose its mind when Denver hated it? This is my 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:49.080 favorite part of the story. It's the time zone 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.820 miracle. Let's unpack this because it's such 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:55.299 a weird, specific, technological quirk of history. 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:58.659 So remember the radio show Let's Dance? It was 00:13:58.659 --> 00:14:01.539 broadcast live from New York City. Goodman's 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:03.779 segment, the hot segment with the Henderson charts, 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:06.480 it aired late. Right. It was on around midnight 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:09.740 or maybe even 1 a .m. Eastern time. So in New 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.440 York, only the insomniacs and the night owls 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:14.379 are hearing it. Right. But think about the time 00:14:14.379 --> 00:14:18.240 zones. Midnight in New York. Is 9 p .m. in California. 00:14:18.259 --> 00:14:21.259 It's prime time. That's exactly when teenagers 00:14:21.259 --> 00:14:23.120 are listening to the radio while they're getting 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:24.960 ready to go out for the night. That is incredible. 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:27.100 I've never heard that before. So the kids in 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:29.419 California had been listening to Benny Goodman's 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:32.019 hot sets for months while doing their homework 00:14:32.019 --> 00:14:34.580 or hanging out with friends. They knew the arrangements. 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:36.980 They knew the solos. They had been waiting for 00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:39.759 him to arrive. The geography of the clock created 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:42.779 a fan base he didn't even know existed. He had 00:14:42.779 --> 00:14:46.179 no idea. And it highlights just how thin the 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:48.899 line is between failure and legend. I mean, if 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.159 that radio show had been an hour later or if 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.139 the tour had stopped in Utah instead of L .A. 00:14:53.379 --> 00:14:55.200 Swing might not have happened. Yeah. At least 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:57.320 not like that. It's very likely. But it did happen. 00:14:57.500 --> 00:15:00.139 The media reported the hysteria at the Palomar. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:02.700 And overnight, Benny Goodman was crowned the 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:06.159 king of swing. So now he has the crown. He has 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:08.759 the power. And this is where the story shifts 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:11.559 from just musical history to social history. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.860 Because once he was on top, he started doing 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.659 things that simply were not done. We need to 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:19.379 talk about the color line. We absolutely do. 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:21.440 And we need to be really blunt about the context 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:24.360 here. In the 1930s, the music industry was strictly 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.919 segregated. No question. Black and white musicians 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:29.559 might jam together in private, after hours in 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:33.139 some back room. But on stage? In public, absolutely 00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:35.399 not. It was illegal in some states. And it was 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:37.700 career suicide in others. But Goodman cared about 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:40.240 one thing and one thing only. The sound. The 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:43.279 sound. He was obsessed with the sound. He didn't 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:47.240 care who made it. He met Teddy Wilson, this elegant, 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.179 brilliant African -American pianist. And Goodman 00:15:51.179 --> 00:15:54.460 wanted that sound in his band. So he hires him, 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:57.139 just like that. Well, not for the big band at 00:15:57.139 --> 00:16:00.519 first. He creates the Benny Goodman Trio. It 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:03.879 was him. Gene Krupa on drums and Teddy Wilson 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:06.919 on piano. And then he adds Lionel Hampton. On 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:10.379 vibraphone for the quartet. And later in 1939, 00:16:10.580 --> 00:16:13.039 he adds the great Charlie Christian on electric 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:14.960 guitar. We have to pause on the significance 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.120 of this. This is 1935, 1936. This is more than 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:20.500 a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the color 00:16:20.500 --> 00:16:22.700 line in baseball. It's massive. And it wasn't 00:16:22.700 --> 00:16:24.279 easy. They couldn't travel together comfortably. 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:27.279 When the band toured the South, Teddy Wilson 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:29.429 and Lionel Hampton. often couldn't stay in the 00:16:29.429 --> 00:16:31.649 same hotels as the white members. No. They couldn't 00:16:31.649 --> 00:16:33.450 eat in the same restaurants. They'd have to find 00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:35.549 boarding houses in black neighborhoods. So was 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:38.009 Goodman doing this because he was a civil rights 00:16:38.009 --> 00:16:40.350 activist? Was he trying to make some big political 00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:43.649 statement? The evidence suggests no, not really. 00:16:43.789 --> 00:16:45.950 He wasn't a marcher. He wasn't giving speeches 00:16:45.950 --> 00:16:48.690 about equality. He was a pragmatist. He wanted 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.490 the best musicians on earth. And it just so happened 00:16:51.490 --> 00:16:55.889 that some of the best were black. But he was 00:16:55.889 --> 00:16:58.100 fiercely protective of them. There's a story 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.679 about a clarinet threat that I love. It's a classic 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:04.740 Goodman story. They were playing a gig, and someone, 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:06.900 maybe a promoter, maybe an echoer in the crowd, 00:17:07.099 --> 00:17:09.519 asked Goodman why he was playing with that N 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:11.900 -word, referring to Teddy Wilson. A horrible, 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.420 racist confrontation. And Goodman didn't try 00:17:15.420 --> 00:17:17.839 to reason with him. He didn't try to explain. 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:20.259 He just looked the guy dead in the eye and said, 00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:23.420 if you say that again to me, I'll take a clarinet 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:25.539 and bust you across your head with it. Simple. 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:30.339 Direct. And violent if necessary. Exactly. Lionel 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:32.519 Hampton said later that what Goodwin did made 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:34.579 it possible for black people to get chances in 00:17:34.579 --> 00:17:37.200 other fields. By putting a mixed band on stage 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:39.859 at the height of his fame, he normalized the 00:17:39.859 --> 00:17:41.960 image of black and white excellence working together. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:44.339 He forced the audience to listen to the music, 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:46.859 not look at the skin color. He did. Speaking 00:17:46.859 --> 00:17:49.180 of excellence, we have to tell the Charlie Christian 00:17:49.180 --> 00:17:51.660 story. Because if the Palomar is sort of the 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:53.859 action movie part of the story, this is the buddy 00:17:53.859 --> 00:17:57.160 comedy part. It really is. Yeah. So John Hammond, 00:17:57.180 --> 00:18:00.319 who was this wealthy producer, a talent scout, 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.400 and basically the architect of Goodman's career, 00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:06.420 he discovers this guitarist in Oklahoma named 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:08.980 Charlie Christian. No, Charlie Christian is playing 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:13.490 an electric guitar. 1939, that's a... weird instrument. 00:18:13.710 --> 00:18:15.950 It was a total novelty. It looked like a science 00:18:15.950 --> 00:18:19.109 experiment. A guitar with a cable plugged into 00:18:19.109 --> 00:18:22.269 a box. Benny Goodman hated it. He hated it. He 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:24.349 thought it was a gadget, not a serious instrument. 00:18:24.630 --> 00:18:26.910 Plus, Charlie Christian shows up wearing a purple 00:18:26.910 --> 00:18:30.630 shirt and yellow shoes. Very flashy. And Benny, 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:32.930 who was always in this perfectly tailored suit, 00:18:33.170 --> 00:18:36.009 he was just appalled. He refused to even audition 00:18:36.009 --> 00:18:38.089 him. So Hammond has to trick him. He has to set 00:18:38.089 --> 00:18:40.869 up an ambush. The band is playing a dinner set 00:18:40.869 --> 00:18:44.190 at a posh restaurant in Beverly Hills. Hammond 00:18:44.190 --> 00:18:46.210 sneaks Charlie Christian onto the stage during 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:49.769 the break. No way. Yes. Goodman comes back from 00:18:49.769 --> 00:18:52.069 dinner. He walks onto the bandstand, and he sees 00:18:52.069 --> 00:18:54.890 this kid in the purple shirt sitting there with 00:18:54.890 --> 00:18:56.430 his electric guitar amp. Benny must have been 00:18:56.430 --> 00:18:59.009 absolutely furious. He was so annoyed. He wanted 00:18:59.009 --> 00:19:00.930 to embarrass the kid, get him off the stage as 00:19:00.930 --> 00:19:03.869 fast as possible. So he calls a tune called Rose 00:19:03.869 --> 00:19:07.710 Room. Okay. Now, Rose Room is a tricky, sophisticated 00:19:07.710 --> 00:19:11.630 piece. Benny assumed this country kid from Oklahoma 00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:14.490 wouldn't know the chord changes. Let's see what 00:19:14.490 --> 00:19:16.490 we've got, kid. A little test. A test. He was 00:19:16.490 --> 00:19:19.250 supposed to fail. They kick it off. And Charlie 00:19:19.250 --> 00:19:22.170 Christian doesn't just know it. He owns it. He 00:19:22.170 --> 00:19:25.069 starts soloing. And the sound coming out of that 00:19:25.069 --> 00:19:28.250 amplifier was unlike anything anyone had ever 00:19:28.250 --> 00:19:31.150 heard before. What was it like? It was horn -like. 00:19:31.289 --> 00:19:34.410 It was sustaining, fluid. It was like a saxophone 00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:36.490 made of electricity. And Benny, what was his 00:19:36.490 --> 00:19:39.460 reaction? Benny stopped trying to embarrass him 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:41.140 and he just started listening. Then he started 00:19:41.140 --> 00:19:43.930 playing back. They locked in. Right. They played 00:19:43.930 --> 00:19:47.190 that one song, Roseroom, for 45 minutes straight. 00:19:47.289 --> 00:19:51.150 45 minutes on one song. Just trading solos back 00:19:51.150 --> 00:19:53.630 and forth. The waiters were stopping to watch. 00:19:53.710 --> 00:19:57.069 The audience was mesmerized. And in that one 00:19:57.069 --> 00:19:59.549 session, the electric guitar went from being 00:19:59.549 --> 00:20:02.509 a novelty gadget to being a lead instrument in 00:20:02.509 --> 00:20:05.190 jazz. It just shows that for Goodman, the music 00:20:05.190 --> 00:20:08.470 always won. If you could play, you were in, period. 00:20:08.809 --> 00:20:13.539 True. And this is the big pivot, being... in 00:20:13.539 --> 00:20:16.460 the band, was not a vacation. No. This brings 00:20:16.460 --> 00:20:18.940 us to the paradox of Benny Goodman. We've talked 00:20:18.940 --> 00:20:20.660 about the hero. Now we have to talk about the 00:20:20.660 --> 00:20:23.460 villain. The dark side of perfection? Goodman 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:27.259 was a demanding, sometimes tyrannical taskmaster. 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:30.440 He expected absolute, note -perfect flawlessness. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:33.259 And when he didn't get it, or even when he just 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:35.460 thought he didn't get it, he had a weapon. The 00:20:35.460 --> 00:20:37.740 ray. The ray. Okay, so the ray. Was this just 00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:40.190 him giving someone a dirty look? Or was it something 00:20:40.190 --> 00:20:42.529 more? I want you to imagine you're on stage. 00:20:42.589 --> 00:20:44.309 You're a trumpet player. You're in the middle 00:20:44.309 --> 00:20:46.769 of a solo. And suddenly, Betty Goodman stops 00:20:46.769 --> 00:20:49.430 playing. He turns to you. He looks over the top 00:20:49.430 --> 00:20:53.569 of his rimless glasses. And he just stares. So 00:20:53.569 --> 00:20:57.190 silence. Total silence. No screaming. No feedback. 00:20:57.390 --> 00:21:00.470 Just this cold, expressionless, unblinking stare 00:21:00.470 --> 00:21:02.650 that musicians said seemed to look right through 00:21:02.650 --> 00:21:05.369 you. That sounds terrifying. It made seasoned 00:21:05.369 --> 00:21:08.170 pros feel like clumsy children. I have to push 00:21:08.170 --> 00:21:09.970 back a little here, though. I mean, we hear about 00:21:09.970 --> 00:21:12.609 tough bosses all the time. Steve Jobs, James 00:21:12.609 --> 00:21:16.549 Cameron. Was the Ray really that bad or are we 00:21:16.549 --> 00:21:18.970 just talking about sensitive artists? It's a 00:21:18.970 --> 00:21:21.710 fair question. Yeah. But you have to understand 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:24.750 the psychological isolation of it. He would do 00:21:24.750 --> 00:21:27.490 this in front of thousands of people in the middle 00:21:27.490 --> 00:21:30.180 of a show. So it's public. It's public humiliation. 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:32.740 And if he was really mad, he would physically 00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:35.559 move you. He would point to a musician and tell 00:21:35.559 --> 00:21:37.420 them to move their chair to the back of the stage 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:39.940 away from the microphone, essentially erasing 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:42.579 them from the performance. Wow, that's cold. 00:21:42.779 --> 00:21:45.400 It is. Helen Forrest, who was one of the greatest 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:48.240 vocalists of the entire era, sang with him for 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.599 about 20 months. She later said it felt like 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:53.500 20 years. She called it a life sentence. That's 00:21:53.500 --> 00:21:56.319 a strong statement. She famously said, Benny 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.160 looks at you, but he doesn't see you. He looks 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:01.819 through you. He just treated them like components 00:22:01.819 --> 00:22:04.880 of a machine. Exactly. If a valve on an engine 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:07.380 is sticky, you replace it. You don't ask the 00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:10.420 valve how its day was. That was Benny. But then 00:22:10.420 --> 00:22:12.779 you have these weird contradictions. The sources 00:22:12.779 --> 00:22:16.160 mention his secret philanthropy. Yes. While he 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:18.180 was freezing people out on stage with the ray, 00:22:18.339 --> 00:22:20.940 he was quietly writing checks to put people through 00:22:20.940 --> 00:22:24.619 college. He paid for medical bills. But he kept 00:22:24.619 --> 00:22:27.619 it a total secret. Why hide the kindness? It 00:22:27.619 --> 00:22:29.400 doesn't make sense. He was deeply cynical. He 00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:31.519 said, if they knew about it, everyone would come 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:34.000 to me with their hand out. So he built this wall 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:36.599 of ice around himself to protect his focus and 00:22:36.599 --> 00:22:38.740 his wallet. So he was generous with his money, 00:22:38.779 --> 00:22:41.759 but incredibly miserly with his emotions. Perfectly 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:44.500 put. It's a really complex psychological profile, 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:48.339 but that relentless, cold perfectionism did lead 00:22:48.339 --> 00:22:51.160 to the absolute summit of his career. We have 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:53.859 to talk about Carnegie Hall. January 16th, 1938. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:57.460 If the Palomar was the birth of swing, Carnegie 00:22:57.460 --> 00:22:59.960 Hall was its coronation. For our listeners, we 00:22:59.960 --> 00:23:03.200 need to contextualize this. Jazz in 1938 was 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:05.440 still seen by the establishment as whorehouse 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:07.279 music. That's what they called it. It was for 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:10.400 nightclubs, for dancing, for drinking. Carnegie 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:12.920 Hall was a temple. It was for Beethoven, Bach, 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:15.819 Mozart. You didn't play drums at Carnegie Hall. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:19.259 Exactly. It was a massive, massive gamble. Goodman 00:23:19.259 --> 00:23:21.539 was terrified. He actually tried to cancel the 00:23:21.539 --> 00:23:23.819 show beforehand. Really? Why? He thought nobody 00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:26.119 would come or that the critics would laugh them 00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:28.240 out of the building. But the show sold out. Sold 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.619 out instantly. And the concert itself, I mean, 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:32.480 if you listen to the recording, it's electric. 00:23:32.900 --> 00:23:34.920 They started out a little stiff, a little nervous. 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:37.880 But as the night went on, the energy just built 00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:39.799 and built. And it culminates in the final number. 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:43.240 Sing, sing, sing. Oh, that song. Even if you 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:45.980 don't think you know it, you know it. The Tom 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:48.859 Toms. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It's the anthem 00:23:48.859 --> 00:23:51.519 of the era. It is. Yeah. And at Carnegie Hall, 00:23:51.700 --> 00:23:54.640 they just stretched it out. Gene Krupa played 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.619 these tribal thunderous drum solos. And Jess 00:23:57.619 --> 00:24:00.660 Stacy played this unexpected, delicate, almost 00:24:00.660 --> 00:24:02.960 impressionistic piano solo right in the middle 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.380 of all the chaos. Yeah. The audience was practically 00:24:05.380 --> 00:24:08.200 levitating. It legitimized jazz overnight. It 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:11.269 said, this is art. With a capital A. Precisely. 00:24:11.269 --> 00:24:14.410 After that night, you couldn't just dismiss Swing 00:24:14.410 --> 00:24:17.009 as a fad for teenagers anymore. It was American 00:24:17.009 --> 00:24:20.509 classical music. And there's a great postscript 00:24:20.509 --> 00:24:24.029 to this concert because for years people talked 00:24:24.029 --> 00:24:25.910 about it, but almost nobody could actually hear 00:24:25.910 --> 00:24:28.289 it. That's right. The concert was recorded on 00:24:28.289 --> 00:24:31.289 acetate discs. These are metal discs coated in 00:24:31.289 --> 00:24:33.930 lacquer, very fragile, but they were just for 00:24:33.930 --> 00:24:36.690 archival purposes. Benny took them home and apparently 00:24:36.690 --> 00:24:39.650 just... forgot about them. Imagine forgetting 00:24:39.650 --> 00:24:42.069 the master tapes of the most famous jazz concert 00:24:42.069 --> 00:24:45.589 in history. It's wild. But fast forward to 1950. 00:24:46.690 --> 00:24:48.869 Goodman is moving out of an apartment, or his 00:24:48.869 --> 00:24:51.369 sister -in -law finds them. The story varies 00:24:51.369 --> 00:24:53.029 a little, but essentially they were found in 00:24:53.029 --> 00:24:55.769 a closet. Just sitting in a closet for over a 00:24:55.769 --> 00:24:57.670 decade. Sitting in a closet, gathering dust. 00:24:57.869 --> 00:24:59.970 You listen to them, realize the quality is surprisingly 00:24:59.970 --> 00:25:03.289 good, and they were released as an LP. the famous 00:25:03.289 --> 00:25:06.230 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. And it was a 00:25:06.230 --> 00:25:08.930 huge hit. It became the first double album in 00:25:08.930 --> 00:25:11.490 history and a massive bestseller. It basically 00:25:11.490 --> 00:25:13.609 resurrected his career in the 50s. Talk about 00:25:13.609 --> 00:25:15.450 finding a winning lottery ticket in your old 00:25:15.450 --> 00:25:18.210 coat pocket. Unbelievable. But time moves on. 00:25:18.349 --> 00:25:21.009 The swing era didn't last forever. World War 00:25:21.009 --> 00:25:23.569 II happened. The economy changed. Musical taste 00:25:23.569 --> 00:25:27.480 shifted. In the 40s, we get bebop. Right. Charlie 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:30.839 Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, fast, frantic, harmonically 00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:33.319 complex. So how did the king of swing handle 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:37.059 being, well, dethroned? Not well. He is the king, 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:39.160 and suddenly these young guys were changing all 00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:41.279 the rules of the kingdom. He tried to adapt. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:43.539 He actually hired some bop musicians for a while. 00:25:43.660 --> 00:25:45.519 I should get it. He even said he liked the loniest 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:48.819 monk. Really? Monk is so abstract and angular. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.240 He was, but Benny said, I like the way he played. 00:25:51.420 --> 00:25:54.200 He's got a sense of humor. But generally, Benny 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.160 struggled. He couldn't get the feel of bebop. 00:25:56.259 --> 00:25:58.380 He eventually rejected it, saying the musicians 00:25:58.380 --> 00:26:01.400 didn't know their scales. The classic old man 00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:04.240 yelling at cloud moment. It really was. So he 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.119 retreated to what he knew. But, and this is where 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:09.019 his obsession comes back in a fascinating way, 00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:12.579 he didn't just rest on his laurels. In 1949, 00:26:12.859 --> 00:26:15.859 he decided to completely reinvent himself as 00:26:15.859 --> 00:26:18.680 a classical clarinetist. The classical overhaul. 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.000 This part of the story actually makes me cringe 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:25.099 physically. It is visceral. So Benny starts studying 00:26:25.099 --> 00:26:27.759 with Reginald Kell, a famous British classical 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:31.299 clarinetist. And Kell tells him, Benny, your 00:26:31.299 --> 00:26:33.940 whole technique is wrong. You're using the wrong 00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:36.180 embouchure. An embouchure is how you put your 00:26:36.180 --> 00:26:37.819 mouth on the instrument, for those who don't 00:26:37.819 --> 00:26:40.480 know. Right. Benny played with his teeth resting 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:42.799 on the top of the mouthpiece. It's a very stable 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:45.440 way to play, good for loud, biting jazz sounds. 00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:47.980 Kell played with what's called a double -lip 00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:50.579 embouchure. covering both your top and bottom 00:26:50.579 --> 00:26:53.940 teeth with your lips. It creates a darker, mellower 00:26:53.940 --> 00:26:57.019 sound, but it's much, much harder to control. 00:26:57.220 --> 00:26:59.200 So the most famous clarinet player in the world 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:02.579 has to basically relearn how to play? Kel told 00:27:02.579 --> 00:27:04.619 him, if you want to do this, you have to start 00:27:04.619 --> 00:27:07.539 from scratch. And Benny had 30 years of calluses 00:27:07.539 --> 00:27:09.779 on his fingers from playing. Of course. Kel said, 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:13.099 those have to go. Oh, no, don't tell me. Benny 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:15.500 Goodman, the king of swing, had his finger calluses 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:18.400 surgically or chemically removed. He stripped 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.480 his hands raw so he could develop the sensitivity 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:24.539 of a beginner again. That is horrific and unbelievably 00:27:24.539 --> 00:27:28.259 impressive at the same time. It illustrates the 00:27:28.259 --> 00:27:31.160 extreme lengths he would go to for musical mastery. 00:27:31.880 --> 00:27:34.799 He spent months just practicing open tones and 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:36.819 scales, sounding like a first -year student, 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:39.920 just to master this new technique. And did he 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:42.279 do it? He did. He commissioned works from major 00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:44.460 composers like Aaron Copland and Bill Bartok. 00:27:44.660 --> 00:27:47.400 He became a respected classical soloist. It just 00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:49.920 proves that the ray wasn't only for other people. 00:27:50.099 --> 00:27:52.480 He turned that same harsh, unforgiving light 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:54.920 on himself. He was always his own harshest critic. 00:27:55.420 --> 00:27:58.069 So let's look at the later years. The world has 00:27:58.069 --> 00:28:01.029 changed completely. It's the Cold War now. And 00:28:01.029 --> 00:28:03.410 surprisingly, Benny Goodman becomes a kind of 00:28:03.410 --> 00:28:06.109 weapon in the Cold War. He does. The State Department 00:28:06.109 --> 00:28:08.190 decides to send the Benny Goodman Orchestra to 00:28:08.190 --> 00:28:11.329 the Soviet Union in 1962. Wow. And this is right 00:28:11.329 --> 00:28:13.690 after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world is 00:28:13.690 --> 00:28:16.549 terrified of nuclear war. So they send a jazz 00:28:16.549 --> 00:28:19.049 band to Moscow to smooth things over. It was 00:28:19.049 --> 00:28:21.549 a cultural exchange. The idea was to show the 00:28:21.549 --> 00:28:23.829 Soviets the freedom and the energy and the joy 00:28:23.829 --> 00:28:26.509 of American culture. And the Russian people loved 00:28:26.509 --> 00:28:29.160 it. They were starved for American jazz. They 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:31.619 treated him like a god. But the tour itself, 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:36.339 behind the scenes. A total nightmare. The bassist, 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:39.680 Bill Crow, wrote a book about it called To Russia 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:42.859 Without Love. That is a great title. A great 00:28:42.859 --> 00:28:46.079 title. It suggests that Goodman was as miserable 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.990 and difficult as ever. He was old. He was in 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:51.809 pain. And he was fighting with the younger, more 00:28:51.809 --> 00:28:54.250 modern musicians in his band, trying to make 00:28:54.250 --> 00:28:56.970 them play like it was still 1938. So even as 00:28:56.970 --> 00:28:59.470 a diplomat, he couldn't turn off the perfectionism. 00:28:59.490 --> 00:29:01.990 Never. And he kept playing right up to the end, 00:29:02.009 --> 00:29:04.430 didn't he? He practiced almost every single day 00:29:04.430 --> 00:29:08.549 of his life. In 1986, he was 77 years old. He 00:29:08.549 --> 00:29:10.529 was still working on charts, still practicing. 00:29:11.009 --> 00:29:13.190 He died of a heart attack while taking a nap 00:29:13.190 --> 00:29:15.609 on his couch in New York. His clarinet was right 00:29:15.609 --> 00:29:17.569 there nearby. He went out as a working musician. 00:29:17.950 --> 00:29:20.450 Absolutely. And we should mention, he was married 00:29:20.450 --> 00:29:22.690 to Alice Hammond, who was John Hammond's sister. 00:29:22.869 --> 00:29:25.230 His producer, the guy who found Charlie Christian. 00:29:25.309 --> 00:29:27.650 Right. And despite the fact that he and John 00:29:27.650 --> 00:29:29.589 Hammond fought constantly, I mean, Hammond actually 00:29:29.589 --> 00:29:31.609 quit Columbia Records because he couldn't stand 00:29:31.609 --> 00:29:33.910 working with Benny anymore. Benny and Alice had 00:29:33.910 --> 00:29:37.400 a long, stable marriage. It was... maybe the 00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:39.960 one area of his life that wasn't chaotic. So 00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:42.880 when we look back at this massive life, from 00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:46.180 being the ninth child in a Chicago slum, learning 00:29:46.180 --> 00:29:48.240 clarinet because he was too small for the tuba, 00:29:48.259 --> 00:29:52.519 to the Palomar Ballroom, to creating the first 00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.039 integrated band, to Carnegie Hall, what's the 00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:58.460 final headline? The headline is that Benny Goodman 00:29:58.460 --> 00:30:01.619 represents the collision of immense, God -given 00:30:01.619 --> 00:30:05.460 talent with a very difficult... very human personality. 00:30:05.819 --> 00:30:08.920 He changed the racial landscape of America, not 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:12.220 through speeches or marches, but through an uncompromising, 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:15.200 relentless demand for the best sound. He proved 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:17.819 that excellence has no color. Exactly. And he 00:30:17.819 --> 00:30:21.119 took dance music. Pop music, essentially. And 00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:23.259 he forced the world to recognize it as high art. 00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:25.559 He built the bridge between the dance hall and 00:30:25.559 --> 00:30:27.680 the symphony hall. It's a heck of a legacy. It 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:29.140 really is. So I'm going to leave you with a thought 00:30:29.140 --> 00:30:31.880 to mull over. We talked about the ray, that intolerant, 00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:34.000 scary perfectionism. And we talked about how 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:36.380 he changed the world. So ask yourself this. Would 00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:38.779 the swing era even have happened without that 00:30:38.779 --> 00:30:41.880 obsession? Is the ray that intolerance for mediocrity? 00:30:42.099 --> 00:30:45.140 Is that sometimes the necessary price we pay 00:30:45.140 --> 00:30:47.619 for changing the world? That really is the question, 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:49.490 isn't it? Thanks for joining us on this deep 00:30:49.490 --> 00:30:51.849 dive into the king of swing. We'll see you next 00:30:51.849 --> 00:30:52.190 time.