This Day in History: Goodman brings jazz to Carnegie Hall

On January 16, 1938, American Jazz legend Benny Goodman decides to give a concert a New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall, claiming a new place for jazz on the American cultural scene, in a revolutionary gesture that brought the so-called “America’s classical music’ to its rightly owned place.
Benny Goodman was at the absolute height of his legendary career when his publicist first suggested they book Carnegie Hall. He was a star on radio, on stage and on film, and the label “King of Swing” was already attached permanently to his name. So outlandish was the suggestion that a jazz band might play inside the citadel of American high culture, however, that Goodman is said to have laughed the idea off at first. However, Goodman threw himself into the task with characteristic passion.
The concert sold out weeks in advance, with the best seats fetching high prices and one of the most famous jazz concerts in history would not be heard on the radio for decades as recordings of the concert were lost for many years until the 1950s. The first album made from the recovered acetates sold over a million copies then. Later on, the discovery of the aluminum master recordings led to CD re-issues in the 1998, 2002 and 2006.
Besides the regular repertoire of his own band – which included the legendary Harry James on trumpet, Lionel Hampton on vibraphone and Gene Krupa on drums – Goodman planned a program featuring a brand-new “Twenty Years of Jazz” piece and an extended jam session featuring stars of the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras.