Media Release: Benny Goodman: King of Swing on WKMS
Date: 01.10.12
Contact: Membership Coordinator Jenni Todd (270-809-4748 or jtodd14@murraystate.edu)
Director of Jazz Ensembles at Murray State, leader of The Todd Hill Quartet and Todd Hill and his Orchestra, and WKMS Volunteer Todd Hill has created a new 10-part series, Benny Goodman: King of Swing for the regional public media service of Murray State University. This is Mr. Hill’s second ten-part series for WKMS, having created Diggin’ Duke in 2010.
The series is airing at 9 p.m. Tuesdays as the first hour of Mr. Hill’s regular Café Jazz show on WKMS.
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was only 10 when he first picked up a clarinet, but by his late twenties and early thirties he was front-and-center of the danceable swing style that was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945.
Hill states that, “While Goodman may not have been the inventor of the style, he certainly was the person most responsible for its incredible popularity. I tried to seek out the best recordings and newly remastered materials for this series and many times found it hard to believe that these recordings were 70 or more years old. The clarity is remarkable. So much so that I would venture to say it is like hearing many of these performances for the first time. There's a lot here to enjoy!”
The 10-part series extends through March and highlights incredible recordings and stories about the racially-integrated jazz groups during the era of segregation. The series installments are as follows:
January 3, 2012: Freelance Days to the Music Hall Band
January 10, 2012: The Birth of the Swing Era
January 17, 2012: The Epitome of Swing
January 24, 2012: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert – Part One
January 31, 2012: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert – Part Two
February 7, 2012: The Post-Carnegie Hall Band in Transition
February 14, 2012: Entering the 1940s
February 21, 2012: The War Years
February 28, 2012: Post-War Developments
March 6, 2012: Benny’s Bop and Swing’s Elder Statesman
WKMS broadcasts and streams online with funding from individuals, underwriters, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Murray State University. See a listening schedule for WKMS programming at www.wkms.org. The station's media services include 91.3 WKMS, Murray; WKMS HD-1 and All-Music HD-2; 90.9 WKMD, WKMD HD-1 and HD-2, Madisonville; 89.5 WKMT, Fulton; 99.5 Paris, TN; and All-Music 92.5 Paducah and 101.5 Madisonville. The station also streams both WKMS HD-1 and HD-2 at www.wkms.org.
