Carnegie Hall Commemorates Benny Goodman’s Hall Debut

  I  

Carnegie Hall in New York will commemorate the 70th anniversary of clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman’s January 1938 Carnegie Hall debut with a free exhibit in the Hall’s Rose Museum. The exhibit, which salutes the “King of Swing” with highlights from his 44-year association with Carnegie Hall, opens on April 16 and runs until June 30.

The exhibit includes flyers, original programs, photographs and concert footage as well as Goodman’s Buffet clarinet, the instrument that he was actively using until the time of his death in June 1986. The clarinet, donated by Goodman’s daughters Rachel Edelson and Benjie Lasseau, was the first donation made to Carnegie Hall’s Archives and Rose Museum in 1988, becoming the Museum’s symbolic cornerstone.

Items on display from Goodman’s 1938 debut performance include the only known intact ticket from the concert as well as concert program, sheet music and photographs. Film footage taken during the 1938 concert will be shown on two screens in the Rose Museum.

More info: carnegiehall.org



  • Buster_Williams_by_Jimmy_Katz_copy.jpg

    “What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.

  • Don_and_Maureen_Sickler_by_Richard_Halterman_copy_2.jpg

    Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.

  • 241e91ef-80d3-7409-17b8-d66ab05d21a1_EE.jpg

    ​The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.

  • Butcher_Brown_by_Jacky_Flav_copy.jpg

    Butcher Brown, clockwise from top left: Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville and Andrew Randazzo. (Keyboardist Harrison couldn’t make the gig, so special guest Jacob Mann sat in with the band at the Reno Jazz Festival.)

  • Darius_Jones_JazzEmAgosto_2025_By_Petra_Cvelbar.jpg

    ​This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.