Benny Goodman - 1981 Interview

so closely identify you with a clarinet truthfully now had you been given the trumpet do you think today we'd know you is any good minute I have the slightest idea really oh I've never I've given some thought to that but there it was the clarinet all the time how'd you end up with a clarinet well there's a story about that there I think my father took us to a synagogue which was in the vicinity of the neighborhood we lived in Chicago and they let you have instruments to play and if you showed any kind of talent I think you were either allowed to buy or they gave them to you and being that I was very small I was given a clarinet my brother was bigger than I was was giving a tube or trombone and the other brother was giving a given a trumpet when you started playing swing or jazz it probably is no different than a youngster today playing acid rock as far as the oldsters are concerned you're talking about the objections possibly or the model volume no I was talking about the style I mean it was quite a departure wasn't it yeah it really was yeah what made you do that that's what came out in the first place it was a larger orchestra not terribly large really we only had five brass which is three trumpets and two trumpets and - trombone why didn't you stay with a popular sure thing music I mean what were you out there fooling around with swing and jazz for sure--they what wasn't your thing who knew the old ballets the pop tunes yeah but that wasn't gonna get you anyplace possibly into a stall I didn't want to play anything doll I coulda stayed with that in the radio stations and or do records with various groups and play doll music all my life but I wasn't interested in it I wanted to do something exciting and then I thought was innovative tell me how the Benny Goodman that I subsequently know and heard of how did you spring into such prominence it's hard for for perhaps the present generation to realize that you were as big as if you'll excuse me the Rolling Stones or in our day yes or the height of my career the you Paramount Theater in places like that well um as I said I had this great desire to have a band of my own which wasn't easy to do oh let me see I first a lot of people don't know this but the first band I had I was organized for Russ Columbo do you remember that singer that was many many years ago and then in that band was Gene Krupa and let me see Joe Sullivan on the piano who was a great jazz player and that was my first taste of a band so to speak but what made you catch on where did it happen how does it happen Oh after the rust Columbo episode I had a band I put a band of it together audition for Billy Rose you know the name and he had a place on Broadway which is now the old Ian Sullivan theatre yes was it called la roses Music Hall and we were supposed to play for the show but being that there were a lot of jazz musicians and didn't particularly like following a conductor the conductor who was leading the band for the show complained about the orchestra not being good enough to play the show well it was a blessing in disguise because then I could all my time playing for dance music you see and left the other band played for the show and still at the Billy Rose Theatre yeah you're not playing the show you're paying for the dancer dancing exactly people would get up on the stage and dance then and this went out for a while and it was kind of difficult because all the musicians would not kind of different was terribly difficult who sends substitutes because I couldn't be any more Union scale you see and Union scale is at times a little over a hundred dollars or something like that so if these musicians had other things to do the paid more money they naturally sent a substitute so I never knew who was going to be in the band when I walked in Oh rather discouraging you're a member of many times I stood up and said well should I go on here again should I just forget it no well I kept at it and um one evening you know I kind of listened objectively and I said my gosh you know this is a pretty good dance oh well cloth audio was playing piano and author Eleni was playing tenor saxophone and put in Allen Rousseau playing guitar now quite a few good musicians and we're telling the people by this time we'd played a lot of things together and had some good Arrangements where's the big borrow steal Lowe's there's Fletcher Henderson in the picture yet no he wasn't no I don't think anyway he found me with Joe Bodine who I was working for at one of these commercial radio programs heard I had a band at Billy Rose of Music Hall and he was with an advertising agency and they were gonna put on a dance program program on NBC called let's dance and this program was going to go on for three or four hours because in those days if you when you went to the west coast you couldn't tape or anything like that you just had to play it over again for the west coast audience live play all over again absolutely what year are we talking about like 1934-35 something like that anyway he came in to audition my band at the Billy Rose Music Hall is he just audition it for an audition to see if we were good enough to audition for the radio program and I had to make sure that I had my entire orchestra there the one L substitute were all substitutes you see and we had a repertoire maybe of blood 15 or 18 songs and when we finished with this now I had to get him out of that oh because we had nothing else to play there's it well we did audition for the National Biscuit program and I remember of my elation you know one when they called me up and told me I did have the program because it was really one of the big moments of my life I think but here was a whole radio program and the fellows were going to get paid just as much for this one radio program as they did the whole week at the Billy Rose Music Hall but not only that we had a public and we had a fund or a salary for arrangements and we could get arrangements made by people I Fletcher Henderson thing and so forth let me jump you now two or three years we're back in New York and by golly Benny Goodman's playing jazz in Carnegie Hall 1938 it's not such a big deal today no but it it's a milestone in it then oh yes we are are you somewhat bemused I noticed your your style is somewhat laid-back were you become the bobby-soxer idol kids screaming shouting and dancing in the aisles oh yes I always was like well I always are never saying to myself at the Paramount Theater when we couldn't even start to play account of all the call it agile ation agile ation and the noise that was going on that I just sat there on the stage and my attitude was well when you get through with your histrionics and and adulation yeah with your show we'll go on with ours but I always thought anybody who took that terribly seriously was out of his mind what would you tell a rut like let's talk about let's say Mick Jagger today you've had the experience of being a Mick Jagger for nearly 50 years what would you advise that young man why don't you give him any advice he's exactly what to but as a matter of fact you know I did I found this out last summer and I sat in on a jam session with him about 20 years ago in London would you believe it what some friends of mine it was about 20 years old oh I guess so yeah it's pushing 40 he reminded me about it did you remember him as a singer not at all no um let's stay with that for a moment those the Rolling Stones for example they haven't played together concert tour in three years right and you used to play how often I mean it's a major difference in it oh yeah if you play your back oh we kept on going all the time we played 365 days a year no yes or threatened 60 days how'd you do that well it's a good question played one-nighters and then if we played a steady in the eights when she played at some place like the Pennsylvania hotel for three or four months once y'all night know you played the whole evening for dancing we started at seven o'clock at night and finished one o'clock in the morning then you might have doubled at the Paramount Theater and then you played five shows a day at the Paramount seven days a week I don't think today's rock and roll kids would believe you I'm probably well I don't know they believe it they wouldn't do it Alan so much for your triumphs let's tally for a moment on that Toscanini story the public I'm sure doesn't know it you were to play Rhapsody in Blue the conductor was to be was pure Tuscany Husky Nene it was the symphony NBC Symphony was it that's right yeah well I'll tell you what really happened we had been playing a radio show from the same studio was called 8h in 30 Rockefeller laughter I guess it is been broken up and whatnot and I looked on the stage or walked into the stage and over all these chairs 80 or 90 chairs so I said well who's who's been here and I think it was somebody who mr. Johnson off we used to have something to do with NBC and he said well the old man meaning Toscanini's been here he's been conducting or is it really was he playing and he said do what I renamed a couple of things he's also playing the raps to him blue I said rafting loans sort of jokingly I said how can he play that without me see and he called me a couple of days later and he said were you serious or joking about playing Rhapsody in Blue with mr. Toscanini well I said I guess I was kidding but why do you ask he said he would like you to play it with him I said oh why not sure well you know there's only about eight bars or something like that or sixteen bars the beginning but it's wonderful how does that go in the beginning Lulu I can't whistle I can't sing it with the glissando he done didn't litter that so far and so I started practicing something that I knew very well because I was know playing for the the maestro you see and I had to wait around for about two or three days rehearsal he had a habit of keeping people waiting as maestro Toscanini finally came time to play and I played it and all he said was baby Benny meaning good I was rather terribly disappointed because I thought he was gonna teach me some wonderful way to play it you say and oh nothing like that happened and we did finally play the concert and I think the thing you're talking about there was there's a passage there where the clarinet has to go up to a high note and for some reason I almost missed it or just about missed it and all my my certain way I'll call it you know the squeak that was heard all the way around the world I think they they have a record of that someplace or I read that when you improvise in jazz you think of the lyrics as you're playing and if you don't it is that right tell me well I I think I do I particularly think of the lyrics when I try to think of a tempo of a song the tempo being the pace it should be at play dad because I think the lyrics we've got a lot to do with that unconsciously or consciously because if there are lyrics that take time to express then you take a little more time with so you takes all right body and soul rather than that he D well you can't really sing that very quickly no that's a exaggerated example but is an example what's your five favorite songs i'ma that may sound ridiculous but I just heard you do that it came to my mind what are the five all-time favorite well I suppose you might call that one of them and stop Dennis a light not particularly know you anything by Rodgers in the heart or one of his great so it's a Gershwin or Cole Porter of itching your buns too broad for me tell me body and soul one yeah well um cold water just one of those things maybe Rodgers and Hart bewitched bothered and bewildered just a name one quickly I mention Yeomans more than you know uh who else those wonderful tunes aren't they what are the kids today going to do with with some summers last year acid rock band what are they going to remember I don't know I have the slightest idea but a lot of them remember the songs we're talking about now the songs written by some of the great composer there is something about the songs that you just named that are truly romantic mm-hmm do you think jazz is romantic yes I do I think jazz is romantic some reason or other you almost blush when you said to her what what well because a lot of people don't think so I think it's it is because it's yeah good jazz is quite melodic they have a lot ik um you can one can improvise usually on tunes that have a melodic substance to them much one you can that on a so called jazz song you were really I don't know if it's fair to say this but somewhat the creation of of radio the medium of radio brought Benny Goodman into everyone's homes yeah but you have to call it records really records are the lifeblood of singers bands of everything those those are the documents you see that people have my radians are being held but what do you think about the record industry today it seems to be well it's they tell he's quite quiet yes what is Google completely different than the record industry that I knew ah if you go into the record shop now you have to take what you want most of the sales men and sales ladies whatever and any idea what they're selling or oh they don't know odd great records around in the shop itself or versions of tunes how many records that you have to sell to be considered a hit then no then I don't know at one time in the record business many many years ago a record light will Blue Heaven by Jean Austen so they tell me about a million records but then the record business went went apart after that and then it came back again around oh I guess well I'm not mistaken well when I entered into it and the early 30s but by that time a big record seller was something like a hundred thousand or one hundred fifty thousand today that would probably be considered well a money loser more probably yes what does it take to me I mean you've been in this business sixty years how in the world did you endure it sometimes did you ever feel like giving up putting down that instrument no not not at all no I love to play and I love to work at it and I I I like to keep interested by getting new music to play that's a good way to do it to say and I think you have to have some kind of a goal all the time whatever it is to keep you going one going and another thing you need that to sometimes lose as you want you you you need vitality if you do new pieces similar to a Bartok piece or a Hindemith piece or something like that you need an awful lot of vitality and that's why it's always good to keep up with the younger people finally talking about the younger people they should be keeping up with you um what advice beyond the cliche of early to bed early to rise work hard to really make it as a musician what does it take well you know I remember vividly I never Glenn Miller asking me that question once he said what do you do to get along in this business you know I'm breaking my neck again was someplace down south I forget rule was and I'd already made it a little bit and I said look I can't tell you exactly what to do again but don't quit very good man you promise not to quit and thank you for being with us thank you pleasure

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Views: 70,398

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Keywords: Benny Goodman (Musician), Interview (TV Genre)

Id: RiaFMZJOUcM

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2012