Answer the questions below and the discussion. 1. What did Benny Goodman do after his “Let’s Dance” show was cancelled and how did this lead to his being “crowned” the “King of Swing”? 2.

Goodman immediately started using Wilson in a trio setting with just Goodman, Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa. Within in a year he added black vibraphonist, Lionel Hampton.

Hampton was equally nimble an d skilled on his instrument. This group produced some of Goodman’s most memorable tunes including “Avalon” and “Moonglow”. The trio and quartet would play during band intermissions at shows thus becoming the first well known interracial band to perform live concerts. In a time when interracial shows were unthinkable Goodman insisted that a booking agent hire the whole band or get no band at all. The record industry also helped ease the way for interracial concertiz ing. People bought and loved these Goodman recordings. The label on the record didn’t specify race. People just knew it was great music. Goodman took a huge risk by bring this group on the road and playing in public and it the end great music triumphed ove r bigotry. Another groundbreaking (and African - American) musician that Benny brought to the public’s attention was Charlie Christian. Christian generally gets credit for being the first one to effectively use the electric guitar as a melody playing instr ument. Before the use of an amplifier the guitar was primarily a rhythm chording instrument. Single string melody lines were never loud enough to be heard over the whole band. The story goes that Benny absolutely did not want yet another member in his sma ll group but when impresario John Hammonds put him on stage without asking one night; Goodman went from angry to awestruck. It is said their version of “Rose Room” lasted forty minutes! Goodman was concertizing with black musicians and insisting on equal fair treatment for them more than twenty years before Jackie Robinson in baseball, and thirty years before the civil rights era of the 1960s. For many musicians race was simply not a valid criterion for evaluating talent. You were either good or you weren ’t.