[Dixielandjazz] Carnegie Hall 1938 Goodman

[david richoux]

On Thursday, Jul 10, 2003, at 08:06 US/Pacific, Stephen Barbone wrote:

> Here is a history of the Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall recording 
> that
> prompted Dick Broadie to take up a long and successful musical career.
>> From http://www.wrkf.org/tinpan4.html
> I apologice for the all caps, don't know how to change them.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
if you have Microsoft Word or similar word processors you can do an 
instant "change case" but it is pretty dumb about names and such...

Dave Richoux

On january 16, 1938, impressario sol hurok, in conjunction with benny, 
rented carnegie hall in new york city to present the first jazz concert 
ever held in that revered home of classical music. Benny, at the 
suggestion of john hammond, wealthy music enthusiast, invited not only 
all the members of his band but also members of the count basie and 
duke ellington bands. The written program stated "the audience is asked 
to accept the jam session in the spirit of experimentation with the 
hope that the proper atmosphere will be established." it was quickly 
established when the program opened with "don't be that way.

The reviews were diverse but generally encouraging. Someone remarked to 
benny that it was too bad somebody hadn't made a record of the concert, 
  and he replied "somebody did." engineers from the columbia 
broadcasting system had hung a single microphone above the stage and 
had run a telephone line to their cbs studios. There the concert was 
recorded. A duplicate set was made and given to the library of 
congress. Benny took the other set home, put it in a closet, and forgot 
about it.

It seems inconceivable that columbia wouldn't have approached the 
concert without thinking first of recording and selling it, but they 
didn't. In 195o, benny's daughter, rachel, rummaging around in the 
closet found the records. "what are these?" she wanted to know. Benny 
wisely had them transferred to tape, and the 1938 carnegie hall jazz 
concert was produced and released on two columbia lp's that same year.