Top Ten of Ten: #2 Benny Goodman’s historic 1938 Carnegie Hall concert

In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman was a leader of one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critics as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz’s ‘coming out’ party to the world of ‘respectable’ music.” Benny Goodman’s January 1938 jazz concert at Carnegie Hall was important because it was actually one of the first rock ‘n’ roll concerts! If you are thinking “how this could be?”, you can either watch old clips of young folks at the concert that night, swaying and rocking in their seats, in an excitable manner… or you can just listen to the power exploding from your stereo speakers when you put this 2 CD-set into your player! This is an amazing album; a small slice of American music history. The fact that this kind of madness could be wonderfully caught in a single night just before WWII America simply amazes me. I also enjoyed the crackles.