Benny Goodman even to use new fingering techniques. He had his old finger calluses removed and started to learn how to play his clarinet again—almost from scratch." Goodman commissioned compositions for clarinet and chamber ensembles or orchestra that have become standard pieces of classical repertoire. He premiered works by composers, such as "Contrasts" by Béla Bartók; "Clarinet Concerto No. 2, Op. 115" by Malcolm Arnold; "Derivations for Clarinet and Band" by Morton Gould; "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano" by Francis Poulenc, and "Clarinet Concerto" by Aaron Copland. "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs" by Leonard Bernstein was commissioned for Woody Herman's big band, but
Benny Goodman This integration in music happened ten years before Jackie Robinson became the first black American to enter Major League Baseball. "Goodman's popularity was such that he could remain financially viable without touring the South, where he would have been subject to arrest for violating Jim Crow laws." According to "Jazz" by Ken Burns, when someone asked him why he "played with that nigger" (referring to Teddy Wilson), Goodman replied, "I'll knock you out if you use that word around me again". In 1962, the Benny Goodman Orchestra toured the Soviet Union as part of a cultural exchange program between the