Benny Goodman Brings Jazz to Carnegie Hall

On the evening of January 16, 1938, clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman led his orchestra into Carnegie Hall in New York City. The concert hall had long served as a bastion for European classical music, and no swing big band had previously headlined an event on its stage. Goodman's publicist, Wynn Nathanson, had proposed the concert in late 1937, though Goodman initially worried that his energetic arrangements would falter in an auditorium accustomed to formal recitals. His confidence increased following the popular response to his film Hollywood Hotel and the crowds gathering outside his shows at the Paramount Theatre. To prepare for the venue, Goodman halted studio recording dates and moved his rehearsals directly into the auditorium to adapt his players to its acoustics.

Interest in the event was intense, and the hall's more than 2,000 seats sold out well ahead of time, with tickets costing close to three dollars. When the performance began, the Goodman orchestra opened with modern selections including Don't Be That Way, Sometimes I'm Happy, and One O'Clock Jump. The early crowd reaction was polite and somewhat reserved, but the atmosphere gradually loosened as the musicians moved through a programmed historical survey of early jazz styles, which opened with a quartet rendering of the 1918 piece Sensation Rag.