Re: Benny Goodman

[Pietro <pietronome...>]

I'll put my 2 pennies worth in but someone else may have 
more in depth info. Mine's just opinion based on scant 
memories of films & books on jazz.
I'm pretty sure that BG was embarassed about his poor 
family & distanced himself from his family background 
when he first found success. I know he was supporting his 
parents & siblings from music earnings from a very early 
age...14 I think.
The song "And The Angels Sing" is noted as Yiddish of 
course, from Der Shtiler Bulgar but as stated in the 
Complete Klezmer, that was brought to the band by 
trumpeter Harry Finkleman (Ziggy Elman). I'm sure there 
were one or two more but this was not a real feature of his 
repertoire. There's definitely something in his sound 
though isn't there?

>One of my bar mitsve students (I help prepare kids for 
their bar and bas mitsves at a secular Jewish Sunday 
school here in LA) has chosen that discreet and 
manageable topic "Jewish Musicians."  With a little 
prodding, he's narrowed it down a bit to Benny Goodman 
and Leonard Bernstein.  We are hoping the list can help 
with 2 questions we have about Benny Goodman:
>
>1. Is there any information about Goodman's feelings 
about his Jewishness?  Any comments he made or letters 
written that would be helpful, or a particular bio which 
discusses this?
>
>2. Did he arrange or record any Jewish songs?
>
>Undoubtedly, we'll have some questions in a few weeks 
about Leonard Bernstein. ;-)
>Thanks for your help!  
>Shira Lerner
>
>---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org 
---------------------+
>