His orchestra did phenomenally well commercially. From until the mids, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, , is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music.
Goodman's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his trio and quartet. He continued performing until the end of his life while pursuing an interest in classical music. Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. They met in Baltimore, Maryland , and moved to Chicago before Goodman's birth.
With little income and a large family, they moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood, an overcrowded slum near railroad yards and factories that was populated by German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants. Money was a constant problem. On Sundays, his father took the children to free band concerts in Douglass Park , the first time Goodman experienced live professional performances. Benny also received two years of clarinet lessons from the classically trained clarinetist and Chicago Symphony Orchestra member, Franz Schoepp.
By joining the band, he was entitled to spend two weeks at a summer camp near Chicago. It was the only time he could get away from his bleak neighborhood. In the summer of , he met cornetist and composer Bix Beiderbecke.
When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar, [ 10 ] which Goodman called "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family". He learned quickly, becoming a strong player at an early age, and was soon playing in bands.
