Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black-and-White Jazz Band in History by Lesa Cline-Ransome (review)

Pages and spreads alternately trace the lives of clarinetist Benny Goodman and pianist Teddy Wilson from their childhood introduction to music education, through their early years playing in segregated groups, to their early studio recordings in an integrated trio, and finally on to their ground-breaking live performances as a racially mixed jazz band. Cline-Ransome keeps the rhythm rolling with verse that follows the musicians’ experience, tracing them from separate growth to the shared stage. Goodman had his roots in Chicago: “All sweet/ All dance/ All white/ All the way to New York” while Wilson came up from the South: “All hot/ All rhythm/ All black/ All the way to New York.” The text suggests, and the endnotes amplify the point, that the initial Goodman/Wilson studio collaboration wasn’t exactly a high point in racial rapprochement; it took awhile for Goodman to agree to bring his integrated trio (and then a quartet) into public view. Once Goodman, Wilson, Gene Krupa, and Lionel Hampton debuted on stage in 1936, however, there was no turning back: “The stage was hot/ The dance floor was hotter/ The music was hottest.” James Ransome’s paintings, with the deep shadows and dramatic illumination of stage lighting, catch the musicians at their most joyous, fairly glowing with the delight of playing with talented peers. End matter includes deeper biographical information on the featured musicians, a timeline of their careers, and brief bios of other jazz masters of the period. Pair this with Peter Golenbock’s perennial favorite, Teammates (BCCB 4/90), for comparison with the way barriers were broken on a very different field.