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Big Band Times Benny Goodman Swing School 8-24-37

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Jan 26, 2009 Benny Goodman Swing School 8-24-37

By 1929, Goodman was living in New York, where he organized his first swing band, in 1934. The group became one of the first successful swing bands. At his peak in the mid 1930s, Goodman landed a regular slot on the radio series Let's Dance. After the show was canceled, in 1935, the band struggled, playing one-night stands to unappreciative audiences craving traditional dance music, not newfangled swing. But on August 21, 1935, the band gave a famous performance at the Palomar Theater in Los Angeles. Broadcast nationally, the concert drew an enormous audience and is frequently credited as the kickoff of the swing era.

The following year, Goodman continued to spread jazz across the airwaves with his own show, Benny Goodman's Swing School, which ran for three years. Goodman became known as the "King of Swing." He also became the first jazz musician to record classical works. Goodman later experimented with other jazz styles and toured throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, visiting Europe, Asia, and South America as America's ambassador of jazz. He died in 1986.