Benny Goodman was born on May 30, 1909 and passed away on June 13, 1986. In between, he gave us many years of great big band music, the kind only the King of Swing could play! These were two of my favorite albums back when vinyl was the main way you could listen to recorded music.
I've always been a big fan of Big Band Swing music which I've been listening to since my early childhood. My parents had a good sized collection of old 78 RPM shellac records which I continually played on an old Motorola player and later, on a Garrard turntable. The music of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and several other big band leaders, was a staple of their collection.
Later on, I managed to get hold of a second-hand clarinet and taught myself how to play the instrument, aided by Paul Harvey's THE COMPLETE CLARINET PLAYER Omnibus Edition from 1986 and A. Magnani's Complete Method for Clarinet in Two Books. Since there were no YouTube tutorials back then, and I didn't have the time to take lessons from a qualified music teacher, the learning process was quite slow and lengthy.
Of course, no virtuosity was achieved but after much practice, I managed to play it with limited proficiency, enough to carry me by when I had to perform in public for a musical play.
I don't remember the name of the show but I do recall I had two solo numbers with a piano accompanist: As Time Goes By and St. Louis Blues.
My clarinet kit.
The clarinet is no longer functional for lack of proper maintenance; however, I still keep it for nostalgic reasons and am planning to buy me a new one someday soon. Playing the clarinet along with Goodman and Shaw's recordings used to be a very pleasant pastime years ago and I hope I can indulge myself once more.
