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 Goodman Today classic style. Benny Goodman Today Benny Goodman Today is a jazz compilation album by Benny Goodman. It was released in 1970 and features big band and small group selections recorded during a concert in Stockholm, Sweden. It was released in the United States on the London Records label (London SPB 21, 2-LP set) as a "phase 4 stereo spectacular". The album, as issued, has a few shortcomings, among them a failure to list the band personnel, despite a double gatefold album with an included booklet full of band photos. And some of the band arrangements are new, and rather uncharacteristic