Happy Birthday, Benny!
I wish my old friend Phil Elwood was still around to write this but Jesse Hamlin is a good substitute.
Benny Goodman’s music still swings
Jesse Hamlin, Special to The Chronicle
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Seventy years later, that music still makes your head spin, feet move and spirits rise.
The sound of Benny Goodman – the blazing clarinet soaring above a riotously rocking big band or dancing with thrilling fluency through improvised trio and quartet numbers – set off the swing fever that helped millions through the Depression and brought jazz to the forefront of American popular music.
Goodman, who would’ve turned 100 on Saturday, was a clarinet virtuoso who played Mozart and “Moonglow” with equal brilliance. Nobody blew jazz clarinet with more fire and finesse than the quixotic Goodman, a remote celebrity who often seemed oblivious to other people…
