Why is the 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert so Important?

The idea to present the Goodman band in concert at Carnegie Hall began as a publicity stunt by Wynn Nathanson, Goodman's publicist. At that time, Carnegie Hall was a bastion of musical propriety, or as John McDonough put it "An import house of Old World traditions where snobby smirks toward American culture had a way of making status-sensitive Yankees feel like Babbits for comparing Gershwin to Wagner or Tatum to Horowitz." Benny Goodman was initially hesitant about the concert, fearing for the worst; however, when his film Hollywood Hotel opened to rave reviews and giant lines, he threw himself into the work. He gave up several dates and insisted on holding reherasals inside Carnegie Hall to familiarize the band with the lively acoustics. Benny worked out a program that was to say the least, ambitious. First were the familiar items from the band's repertoire ("Sometimes I'm Happy", "Blue Skies", "Swingtime in the Rockies", and "Sing, Sing, Sing".) Then he added new works that were scheduled for release but not yet recorded ("Don't Be That way", "One O'Clock Jump", "Life Goes to a Party", "Loch Lomond") Finally, Fletecher Henderson was assigned to prepare brand new arrangements of "Blue Room" and "Make Believe" (although the latter was not finished in time.) Goodman then prepared a remarkable presentation called "Twenty Years of Jazz", a thumbnail history of hot music. Finally, he scheduled an extended let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may jam session that would feature some of the stars of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Bands along with his own.

The concert was a sellout weeks in advance; 2760 seats sold at the astoundingly high price of $2.75 (or about $43 in 1998 dollars). An unusual footnote to the event was that it was picketed by pro-Franco (i.e. Fascist) opponents of Goodman's support for the Spanish Republican government.

Briefly, "Twenty Years of Jazz" was good; the jam session laid an egg, but works by the Trio and the Sextet took off. "Swingtime in the Rockies", "Bei Mir Bist du Shoen", "Stompin at the Savoy", "China Boy", and "Dizzy Spells" built the enthusiasm. The finale, "Sing, Sing, Sing" blew the roof off the house, ending with the absolutely unbelievable solo of pianist Jess Stacy.

Alas, much of the concert has been "lost". True, he concert was recorded and is available on CD; however, the technology of recording was very primitive. Only three microphones were used -- a 144BX above the conductor's podium and two others at ends of the band. The feed went offstage to a mixer and then to a CBS truck in the alley. Strangely, engineers on site did NOT control the mix. Therefore the settings were the same for each song. From there, it was sent by broadcast-quality telephone line to the CBS master control room downtown who then patched it on to Harry Smith's Artist's recording studio and Raymond Scott's Universal Recording studio. Both studios cut acetate records but they were limited to 8 minutes 45 seconds each. Thus, two turntables were in constant use in each studio --- alas, synchronization had not been invented and half the recordings are at a slightly different speed than the others. In the CBS studio, a master was cut on a 33" aluminum studio transcription discs. The aluminum discs were filed away and "disappeared"

Benny Goodman eventually came into possession of the acetates. Because Goodman had used musicians from a variety of bands, contract difficulties made it virtually impossible to issue a recording. Everything faded from view until about 1950 when the acetates were discovered in (of all things) his sister-in-law's house. Needless to say, the quality had degraded even further. With heroic engineering, it was possible to restore about 75% of the concert. The re-engineered version was issued in 1950 and became one of the first of the 33-1/3 rpm long play records to sell over a million copies. A rework of this recording is available on CD. In early January of 1998, it was announced that the aluminum studio masters had been rediscovered, allowing the entire concert to be reproduced with much better fidelity.

We were at the recreation of the Goodman Carnegie Hall concert presented by the New Columbia Swing Band on January 16, 1998, exactly sixty years after the original. Sue Fedor wrote this review:

From: Sue Fedor

Steve and I attended the New Columbia Swing Orchestra's recreation of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert at the Duke Ellington School Auditorium. I found out, only that morning by reading the paper that only part of the concert would be reproduced, but that Brooks Tegler would be doing the entire concert in Annapolis on Sunday. It was too late to change our plans, however.

The band never projected better than it did on a stage with real acoustic baffling. If Frank Goldseth is serious about not amplifying the musicians, he'd do well to invest in some portable baffles. They really do the trick. However, a myriad of little problems combined to fill the concert with distractions: a busted microphone on the lead singer, musicians who were a tad out of synch, soloists with no energy...etc...

By the time they got to "Sing, Sing, Sing", however, the band kicked into gear. My personal highlight was "I've Got Rhythm" where Brooks Tegler, on drums and the vibraphone player played a mean duet: vibraphone with a cowbell counter point. Brooks' plays his entire drumset (genuine Gene Krupa), from the rims of the drums themselves (which sound like bells), to the squeak his chair makes when he bounces on the bass pedal.

Much like the original concert, there has been great tension between Brooks Tegler and Frank Goldseth--paralleling the tension that Goodman had with Krupa. It's hard to rein in two talented musicians with very strong opinions and high standards of perfection. We sat in the front row during the concert, where, it was very apparent, that all the musicians involved worked hard on the music and were really having fun. Ultimately, that's what counts.

Now onto dancing....At the original 1938 concert, there WAS dancing (and clapping, and shouting, and young men rushing the stage), much to the chagrin of both Goodman and the critics. It is often rumored that Goodman was not fond of dancers. From what I've read, I think that while he was willing to play for all sorts of audiences, he preferred to keep the dancers in the ballroom and the concert goers in their seats. Young men, nicknamed "ickies", would hang out around the edge of the stage and gyrating, bouncing, and wagging their heads with the music....the forerunners of "headbangers", if you will. Goodman especially hated these guys.

We danced on the sides down in front and in the aisles. The floor was concrete covered with low nap industrial carpeting. We all wore leather bottomed shoes. Frank G. and the crowd were very appreciative. During "Stompin' at the Savoy", we broke into a Shim Sham, once I flew over to the other side of the house to accompany Frank M. and gang. It was really neat to shim sham to this version. All the phrase lengths are the same, but their order was a bit different than on the recording. This made the moves "feel" different, since we were doing them to a different melody line. This made me, at least, emphasize the steps in a different way or even synchopate a bit. The song was also three times longer than we were used to...so even after starting late, we were able to complete the whole routine and dance.

In 1938, Goodman featured Count Basie on piano and Lionel Hampton on vibes. It was revolutionary to see black and white musicians together in this sort of venue. It would still be some time before the integration that was common in Jazz would be acceptable elsewhere. Only a year later would Marion Anderson be denied a concert at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. Of course, she would go on to sing to a larger audience at a much better venue: the Lincoln Memorial.

While the Carnegie Hall patrons basked in the afterglow of having seen the "best musicians in Jazz," the "best musicians in Jazz" took cabs uptown to the Savoy Ballroom, where a much anticipated battle of the bands was taking place. Chick Webb vs. Count Basie. THAT'S where the best musicians in Jazz really were. Playing for dancers. No room for "ickies" or folks paying $15 to sit in cushy velvet seats.

This is the review that appeared in The Washington Post --- there is also a review in the local throwaway, the Northwest Current, in which Steve, Sue, the Engels, and others are generally misquoted.

New Columbia Swing Orchestra At Duke Ellington School

At the Duke Ellington School of the Arts on Friday night, the New Columbia Swing Orchestra celebrated the 60th anniversary of Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall jazz concert. It did so by vibrantly re-creating much of the music performed on that fabled evening in 1938, back when a box seat would have cost you $2.75 [Editor's Note: Adjusted for inflation, this is $42.84 in 1998 dollars; the 85 cent balcony seats would be about $13.24 -- sorry, in my note last Friday, I guessed at $15.]

Doubtless some members of the audience were in a mood to reminisce about the music of their youth, while a younger contingent of swing-era enthusiasts clearly came to dance the night away. The performance, though, offered listeners much more than a whiff of nostalgia and a danceable beat. For starters, the charts assembled for the concert by band leader and clarinetist Frank Guldseth frequently attested to Goodman's good taste and good fortune. He worked with some of the era's finest arrangers, after all, including Fletcher Henderson and Jimmy Mundy. Moreover, the big band charts and small combo jam sessions were laced with artful contributions from Guldseth, trumpeter Marc Weigel, pianist Larry Eanet and vibist John Cocuzzi, plus the now nonchalant, now explosive Gene Krupa-like drumming of Brooks Tegler.

Unfortunately, the orchestra might have been better off using sound equipment available during Goodman's glory days. Frequent problems with the stage monitors and microphones robbed the music of some of its luster and undermined John Tegler's informative narration and vocalist Dana Sanders's performance of "Loch Lomond." A fine singer with a voice particularly well suited to the material, Sanders later got a chance to fully display her talent on "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen."
--- Mike Joyce

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