Ben Webster Quotes

"There are four guys that I’ve always listened to and admired and have great respect for. I think they’re just about the greatest for what they’re doing. That’s Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges and Hilton Jefferson. If I have a kind of an alto approach to the tenor, I guess that’s because I like Johnny, Jeff and Benny so much. I’ve listened to them for so long, you know. I take each guy for what he does. I wouldn’t want to sound just like somebody else. But I think it’s kind of healthy to listen to these guys, because I consider all four of them bosses. They all have definitely different styles, and you know them as soon as you hear them." - Ben Webster

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1965.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging." - Artie Shaw

source: Jazz Connection Magazine

Stanley Crouch Quotes

"Above all else, [Benny Goodman] was a great player, one of the greatest American music has produced. He brought his absolute talent and his invincible love of music to the fore every time he played. There are many other things connected to society and ethnicity that are often mentioned in a discussion of Benny Goodman but all of them are connected to his overwhelming affection for the art of the music and the fairness it should be allowed to express." - Stanley Crouch, jazz historian/critic.

Jimmy Maxwell Quotes

"He was totally in command of everything. He was always a heavy practicer. Practiced all the time. He had ideas on how everything should be done in the band – bass, everything. Nobody argued with him, everybody had great respect for him." - Jimmy Maxwell

Mel Powell Quotes

"[Benny] Goodman was one of the most incredible players the field has ever known. It wasn't just that his own improvisation was marvelous, the spirit, the verve, the vitality, even humor he played with, but the sheer technical mastery. He played that thing like it was a yo-yo. The only thing comparable from a technical point of view would be [Art] Tatum." - Mel Powell

Marian Seldes Quotes

"I had never heard anyone play like Benny Goodman and had never seen anyone like him on the stage. I realize now that what impressed me and stayed with me in memory was – the sounds he made. He played so purely. The music seemed to come from him, not just the instrument he played with such mastery." - Marian Seldes

Artie Shaw Quotes

"Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel." - Artie Shaw

Robert J. O’Meally Quotes

"From his earliest small group recordings through his big bands of the swing era – of which he surely was a king – and on until the end of his days, Benny Goodman was a master of the clarinet and a bandleader admired by musicians and non-musicians alike, across all musical categories and across the globe. His quicksilver tone, his insistent drive to swing the music, his ability to execute cleanly the most dramatic filigrees of passages – all these qualities made him one of the most imitated instrumentalists in the world. Equally important to his legacy is his courage in proclaiming that music is a universal language transcending race and nation. Both as musical units and as experiments in democracy, his integrated bands comprised magnificent gestures toward perfection in our time." - Robert J. O’Meally, Director of Jazz Studies, Columbia University, NYC

Staten Island Sunday Advance Quotes

"Only Stokowski and Iturbi made as many Hollywood films as Benny Goodman, and his touring and recordings have made him the greatest living jazz legend throughout the world. His name is an ‘open sesame’ everywhere he goes." - Staten Island Sunday Advance (March, 1981)

Georgie Auld Quotes

"Working for Benny [Goodman] was like being in a school of music. His discipline, knowledge and ability were great determining factors in my musical life." - Georgie Auld

Harry James Quotes

"Benny [Goodman] used to practice 15 times more than the whole band combined." - Harry James

John F. Kennedy Quotes

"Benny Goodman is our 'International Ambassador With Clarinet.'" - John F. Kennedy (Russia, 1962)

John McDonough Quotes

"[Benny Goodman] remains one of the great contributors to music ... people are fortunate to be able to enjoy this outstandingly talented man." - John McDonough (in Coda, a Canadian jazz publication, 1974)

Whitney Balliett Quotes

"The brilliant explosion known as Benny Goodman went off in 1935, and it hasn´t gone out yet." - Whitney Balliett (New Yorker Magazine, 1977)

Lionel Hampton Quotes

"Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general." - Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton Quotes

"Black and white players hadn't appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with Benny Goodman." - Lionel Hampton