On January 16, 1938 Benny Goodman brought his swing orchestra to America's venerated home of European classical music, Carnegie Hall. The resulting concert - widely considered one of the most significant events in American music history - helped to usher jazz and swing music into the American cultural mainstream. This reputation has been perpetuated by Columbia Records' 1950 release of the concert on LP. Now, in Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, jazz scholar and musician Catherine Tackley provides the first in depth, scholarly study of this seminal concert and recording. Combining rigorous documentary and archival research with close analysis of the recording, Tackley strips back the accumulated layers of interpretation and meaning to assess the performance in its original context, and explore what the material has come to represent in its recorded form. Taking a complete view of the concert, she examines the rich cultural setting in which it took place, and analyzes the compositions, arrangements and performances themselves, before discussing the immediate reception, and lasting legacy and impact of this storied event and album. As the definitive study of one of the most important recordings of the twentieth-century, Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert is a must-read for all serious jazz fans, musicians and scholars.

About the Author
Catherine Tackley is Senior Lecturer in Music at The Open University, UK. Her first book, The Evolution of Jazz in Britain, 1880-1935, was published in 2005. In 2006-7 Catherine was Visiting Edison Fellow at the British Library National Sound Archive, and in 2009-11 was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project 'What is Black British Jazz?' She is a co-editor of the Jazz Research Journal (Equinox). Catherine is currently Director of Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats Big Band.

Reviews
Tackley is an especially goof researcher and it is unlikely one will find any related subject matter not covered thoroughly here. * Bob Porter, IAJRC Journal *
Tackley's book attempts to do more than just relate the details of the concert; instead, she seeks to place the event among larger contexts, from the use of recordings as a basis for canonisation to embodiment of the musical past ... All will be inspired to obtain the recordings, not only of the concert itself, but also of the multitude of rich sonic evidence that Tackley cites from Goodman as well as his swing ear compatriots * Sarah Caissie Provost, Popular Music Journal *
It is the evidently joyous combination of enthusiasm, scholarly discipline and musical expertise that makes this contribution to the Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz intriguing for the analyst, particularly companionable for those of us who have grown up with this landmark recording (not released until 1950) and an entertaining narrative for the general reader interested in the place of jazz in American culture. * John Mole, Times Literary Supplement *
a thoroughly researched, scholarly work ... For students of jazz history and those interested in the Goodman swing era, this will be a welcome arrival. * Sally Evans-Darby, Jazz Journal *
the meat of the volume is the central track-by-track breakdown of the music programme ... Tackley writes compellingly. * Brian Priestley, Jazzwise *
Only the fourth book in the "Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz" series, Tackley's work joins the previous three entries as a distinguished contribution to the literature ... there should be a broad audience for this volume ... Highly recommended. All readers. * K. R. Dietrich, Choice *


Awards
Winner of Winner of Jazz Publication of the Year at the 2013 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.



Book Information
ISBN 9780195398304
Author Catherine Tackley
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 403g
Dimensions(mm) 145mm * 218mm * 18mm