Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black-and-White Jazz Band in History

Goodman grew up in Chicago, a working-class Jewish boy; Wilson lived in Tuskegee, Alabama, a middle-class African American boy. The story of how the two jazz musicians met and formed the Benny Goodman Trio (the "first interracial band to perform publicly") is recounted in short bursts of text, almost like jazz riffs, accompanied by pencil and watercolor illustrations that capture distinctive moments. Timeline.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Benny Goodman was a working-class Jewish boy growing up in Chicago, while Teddy Wilson was a middle-class African American boy living in Tuskegee, Alabama. Both of them showed an early talent for music. Benny played the clarinet and Teddy the piano (plus violin, oboe, and clarinet). And they both loved jazz music. Jazz brought them together when their paths crossed at a party and they played together spontaneously to entertain the guests. Their styles melded so well that they soon began to record together (along with Gene Krupa on drums) as the Benny Goodman Trio, and in 1935 their first recordings (including "Body and Soul" and "After You've Gone") were huge hits. For a time, because of segregation, the Benny Goodman Trio performed onstage with a substitute white pianist, Jess Stacy (no slouch himself), but audiences could tell that the group didn't sound as good as its recordings, and in 1936 the Trio "ma[de] history as the first interracial band to perform publicly." The story is recounted here in short bursts of text, almost like jazz riffs, accompanied by pencil and watercolor illustrations that capture distinctive moments in the subjects' lives. An informative author's note gives more information on both men, a timeline, and capsule biographies of other significant jazz musicians of the time. kathleen t. horning