Benny Goodman - The King Of Swing. Benny was awarded this accolade as a result of the popularity of his big band in the 1930s. But his was not the first big band and not the first swing band. There had been big bands around for some years and included the Paul Whiteman Orchestra which numbered more than fifty musicians in its concert performances. The accent was on the concert aspect of music but the orchestra was reduced to a more manageable dozen or so musicians to perform arrangements that are easily recognisable as "swing". There was also the Jean Goldkette Orchestra that was a smaller unit that played mainly for dancing but included several jazz men in its personnel and featured swinging arrangements. Goldkette also acted as an agent providing orchestras for engagements at venues around his base in Detroit and one of these, The Orange Blossoms Orchestra went on to become The Casa Loma Orchestra, one of the bands that played many hot swing arrangements. Then there were also the Negro bands such as Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Duke Ellington's Orchestra and, the pioneering Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. The Henderson Orchestra consistently outplayed other orchestras in the battle-of-the-bands contests that were popular at the time. But Henderson, while capable of recruiting the best soloists and writing the best arrangements was not a good manager and his band constantly struggled to find employment, especially at the more lucrative venues.

See also JASCD 144/5, JASCD 402, JASCD 409, JASCD 656.

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1. LIZA
2. INTRODUCTION TO MEDLEY
3. MEDLEY: POOR BUTTERFLY / AVALON  /SWEET LORRAINE / THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE
4. INTRODUCTION TO "LAZY AFTERNOON"
5. LAZY AFTERNOON
6. ST LOUIS BLUES
7. INTRODUCTION OF CHARLES DEFORREST
8. THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING
9. I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
10. BYE BYE BLACKBIRD
11. INTRODUCTION OF "RACHEL'S DREAM"
12. RACHEL'S DREAM
13. INTRODUCTION OF PIANO SOLO
14. FATHER TIME
15. I FOUND A NEW BABY
16. THERE'LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE
17. I WANT TO BE HAPPY
18. RUNNIN' WILD
19. MISSION TO MOSCOW
20. CLARINET A LA KING
21. KING PORTER STOMP