[Dixielandjazz] Carnegie Hall 1938 Goodman

[Richard Broadie]

Some little known info about the '38 Carnegie Hall Concert:

Albert Marx paid for the recording session and made all the arrangements
with no participation on the part of BG.  Sometime after the concert was
over, Benny asked Albert if he could "borrow" a copy of the Carnegie
concert.  The tapes Benny's daughter, Rachel, found in the closet in 1950
were the copies Albert had sent him.  Goodman made tons of money from this
concert and he never paid Albert a penny for the recording rights and
deinied any knowlege of Albert's contribution when confronted on the issue.
Obviously had Albert received his share of royalties, it could have cost
Goodman a bundle.

After Albert moved to LA from Palm Springs, he had me search his former home
in hopes that his "lost" master tapes could be found.  I had no luck in
locating them.

Albert never received the credit due him.  Were it not for him, the
recording would never have been made.  He eventually was given a Grammy for
his contribution  from someone BG acknowledged as being responsible for the
recording but refused to keep the Grammy because he didn't feel he rightly
disserved it..  I can't remember the exact story, but Albert showed me the
Grammy in his LA home and stated that, until the lost masters could be
located, this was his best proof of his claims.

The master tapes were eventually located in one of Albert's "vaults" shortly
after his death and were used in a reissue of the whole concert, including
one song that had never been included in the original due to extremely poor
audio problems.  Guess that's proof that Albert's claims were valid,.  I've
heard both the master and the BG closet versions and can't say I heard many
significant differences between the master and Goodman's copy.  Of course
the "clean" missing song is an indication that Marx really did have the
first eneration masters.

I had the pleasure of reuniting Albert with Jess Stacey around 1989 at a
convention.  It was the first time they'd seen each other since the '39
concert.  Turns out my deed wasn't all that impressive.  They were both
scheduled to speak on the same panel later that day.  Still it was fun to be
there and witness the actual reunion along with my wife Sharon.  We were the
only other people in the room to witness a long overdue hug between them.
Keep in mind that that recording really put Jess on the map.  And it was
that recording that hooked me on jazz when I was very young.

Enough ramblings for today.

Hope you enjoyed them.

   Dick  B
----- Original Message -----
From: "david richoux" <tubaman at batnet.com>
To: "dixie" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 9:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Carnegie Hall 1938 Goodman


>
> 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.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>