TV REVIEW : ‘Benny Goodman’ a Definitive Work

How important was Benny Goodman? What were his contributions as a clarinetist, orchestra leader, pioneer in racial desegregation? These and other questions are dealt with in detail in “Benny Goodman: Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing,” airing this evening at 7:35 on KCET-TV Channel 28.

Produced and directed by Oren Jacoby, this is a definitive documentary that enlisted the help of countless friends, relatives and sidemen who observed the Goodman saga. Several knew him from the start of his career. At 15, he left Chicago in 1925 to join the Ben Pollack band.

Rare film clips, some never before seen publicly, trace Goodman’s rise as an impeccable jazz soloist and rigid perfectionist. The footage shows his evolution as leader of a band that triggered the swing era, and as a pioneer who, against the advice of businessmen, hired Teddy Wilson (and soon after, Lionel Hampton) when it was unheard of for interracial groups to appear in public. Fletcher Henderson and other black arrangers played a vital role in contributing to the Goodman band’s library. (Henderson in 1939 replaced Jess Stacy as the band’s pianist.)

The Goodman Quartet plays its famous version of “Avalon”; his band swings “Bugle Call Rag” and backs vocalists Helen Ward, Martha Tilton, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. (Ward, in a recent interview, tells of a marriage proposal offered, and promptly withdrawn, by Goodman.)

The maestro’s efforts as a talent scout produced many jazzmen who left him to form their own bands: Gene Krupa, Harry James, Wilson and Hampton. Pianist Jess Stacy, now in his 90th year, tells how his solo in “Sing Sing Sing” became a surprise hit at Goodman’s legendary Carnegie Hall concert.

Aspects of Goodman’s quixotic personality are discussed by his daughters, sister and others, among them the notorious “ray” that transfixed scared sidemen. His marriage across society lines to a Vanderbilt and his brief flirtation with be-bop were among the events of the 1940s. Goodman’s later years (he died in 1986) are treated only briefly, since they were devoted to sporadic retreads of his earlier glories.

Richly anecdotal, informative and musically superlative, this is a priceless addition to the “American Masters” series.