It has been dubbed the most important jazz concert of all time, and there is no question that the night that Benny Goodman and his band took the stage in tails as the first ever jazz act to play Carnegie Hall on January 18, 1938, the event gave jazz a legitimacy that it had never had before. The Chicago-born “King of Swing” had shrewdly purchased the arrangements of New York black bandleader and arranger Fletcher Henderson for a pittance when Henderson was down on his luck after the 1929 crash. Forming the first integrated jazz band made up of white and black players but with a white leader, Goodman popularized the same arrangements over the radio and on records and dance halls in a way unimaginable by Fletcher’s all-black band at such a segregated time in much the same way Elvis Presley would make black blues and rock acceptable to mainstream white audiences some twenty-five years later. Only a white guy could have gotten into Carnegie Hall in 1938, but to Goodman’s credit, he invited a battery of black guests to join him and his band. Chicago Jazz Ensemble artistic director Jon Faddis recorded with Goodman late in Goodman’s career and six years after his 1986 death, Faddis presented a concert honoring him at Carnegie Hall with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band that recalled that historic concert that forever changed how jazz was perceived. That night will again be the focus of a special concert featuring Paquito D’Rivera taking the Goodman role as well as performing his own Latin-infused jazz in this special concert that continues CJE’s tenth anniversary season. A pre-concert conversation with Faddis will take place before the concert at 7:20pm. (Dennis Polkow)
December 12 at Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, (312)334-7777, at 8pm.
A Joyful Noise: Mars Williams’ Jazz Holiday Tradition Williams and his band present a mash-up of holiday melodies with avant-garde jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler’s squonky works, finding both commonality and tonality.
Soaring with Bird: Jazz Showcase Founder Joe Segal Passes Away “Everybody in the field of jazz,” said Segal, “whether a record producer, deejay or club owner, is really a frustrated musician… If I could play, I’d be up on the stage instead of at the door.”
Music 45: Who Keeps Chicago In Tune 2020 This year’s Music 45 arrives at an unprecedented moment. Our city’s musicians have responded to these crises with ingenuity, vigor and creative brio.
