Benny Goodman was entitled to spend two weeks at a summer camp near Chicago. It was the only time he could get away from his bleak neighborhood. He also received two years of instruction from classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp. When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar. His father's death was "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family", Goodman said. He attended Lewis Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1924 as a high-school sophomore and played clarinet in a dance hall band. His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists
Benny Kalama Benny Kalama Benny Kalama (June 29, 1916 – September 21, 1999), born Benjamin Kapena Kalama in Kohala on the Big Island of Hawaii, is an American singer with a honey-voiced falsetto. He is credited with discovering and nurturing Alfred Apaka, and was part of several groups. Until the day Apaka died, Kalama was coaching and arranging music for him. At Kalakaua Intermediate School in 1931, Benny began playing trombone in the band. Upon graduation from McKinley High School where he played in the band, Kalama hooked up with Leonard "Red" Hawk and the Waikikians. Kalama's ability to read music, rather