His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinet players in Chicago such as Johnny Dodds, Leon Ropollo, and Jimmy Noone.
Goodman joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, at the age of 16, He made his first recordings with them in 1926. He started making records under his own name two years later.
Goodman left for New York City. He became a good session musician during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was known as a solid player because he was prepared and reliable. He played with the nationally known bands of Red Nichols, Isham Jones, and Ted Lewis. Then he formed his own band in 1932.
In 1934, he tried out for the "Let's Dance" radio program. Since he needed new charts every week for the show, his friend John Hammond suggested that he buy some jazz charts from Fletcher Henderson, who had New York's most popular African-American band in the 1920s and early 1930s. The combination of the Henderson charts, his strong clarinet playing, and his band that practiced well made him a rising star in the mid-30s.
He performed at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935. Because of this show, he became known across the United States His radio broadcasts from New York were too late at night for many people on the East Coast to hear them, but Goodman had many fans in California, and a very excited crowd greeted Goodman. This got a lot of attention across the nation, and made the Goodman Band popular very fast. Some writers have said that this was the start of the Swing Era.
Goodman continued his fast rise throughout the late 1930s with his big band, his trio and quartet, and a sextet. On January 16, 1938, his band made a famous appearance at Carnegie Hall. By the mid-1940s, big bands became less popular. Some reasons for this are that talented musicians were entering the military or getting better-paying factory jobs, gasoline and rubber rationing during WWII, two long musician recording strikes, and the rise of popular singers like Frank Sinatra.
Goodman continued to play on records and in small groups. He would sometimes organize a new band and play in a jazz festival, or go on a tour, playing in other countries. He continued to play the clarinet until he died in 1986 in New York, New York.
Goodman also helped racial integration in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by law. Benny Goodman broke with tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him and drummer Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman Trio. In 1936, he added Lionel Hampton on vibes to form the Benny Goodman Quartet. Goodman was so famous that his band could afford to not go on tour in the southern states, where the people in his band might have been arrested because of their race.
Masafumi Akikawa
Masafumi Akikawa is a Japanese tenor singer. He was born October 11, 1967, in Ehime, Japan. His representative work is "Sen no kaze ni natte", this song was sung in annual NHK sponsored year-end men versus women singing contest in 2006.
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American musician. He is considered to be one of the best jazz musicians of his time. He was a jazz clarinet player, composer, and bandleader. He also wrote both fiction and non-fiction writings.
He was born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York, New York. He began learning the saxophone when he was 15. By age 16 he began to tour with a band. He returned to New York City and became a session musician. During the Swing Era, his big bands were very popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" and "Stardust".
During World War II he joined the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific theater as the leader of a service band (similar to Glenn Miller's wartime band in Europe).
In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his leftist activities. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a communist front.
Throughout his musical career, Shaw would take time off. He would quit the music business and pursue his writing career. In 1955, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet. After that, he focused on writing, especially semi-biographical fiction.
In 1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself would guest conduct from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement.
In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932); Margaret Allen (1934-37); Lana Turner (1940); Betty Kern (1941-43), daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; Ava Gardner (1945-46); "Forever Amber" author Kathleen Winsor (1946-48); Doris Dowling (1952-56) and Evelyn Keyes (1957-85). He had two sons by Kern and Dowling.
In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. Shaw had adult onset diabetes. In December 2004, he died due to the disease at age 94.
Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. "Ed" Murrow (April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American journalist and television and radio figure. He first became known for a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II. These broadcasts were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada. Many historians think he was one of journalism's greatest figures. Murrow hired the best war correspondents. He was known for his honesty and integrity in delivering the news. He was a pioneer of television news broadcasting.
Murrow produced a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was portrayed by David Strathairn in the 2005 movie "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Good Night, and Good Luck
Good Night, and Good Luck. is an Academy Award-nominated American 2005 movie directed by George Clooney. It was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov and is set in 1953. It portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The movie, although released in black and white, was filmed on color film stock but on a grayscale set. It was later color corrected to black and white during post-production. It is about media responsibility. It also addresses what occurs when the media offer a voice of dissent against the government. The movie takes its title from the line with which Murrow routinely closed his broadcasts.
Taglines: "They took on the government with nothing but the truth"; "We will not walk in fear of one another."
AnnaSophia Robb
AnnaSophia Robb (born December 8, 1993) is an American actress and model. The films in which she starred include "Because of Winn-Dixie" (2005), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), "Bridge to Terabithia" (2007), "Race to Witch Mountain" (2009), "Soul Surfer" (2011), and "The Way, Way Back" (2013). She also played the lead role of Carrie Bradshaw on The CW's series "The Carrie Diaries" from 2013 to 2014.
Robb was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Janet, an interior designer, and David Robb, an architect. She was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Anna Sophie, and her paternal grandmother, Anna Marie. Robb is of Danish, English, Irish, Scottish, and Swedish descent. She grew up in a Christian home and was home-schooled. She started taking an interest in acting and began by performing in front of 500 individuals on her church stage. She competed in dance and gymnastics for four and a half years, but quit in order to focus on acting. In 2009, the "Arapahoe Herald" reported that she was attending Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. She graduated in 2012.