Concertized Jazz

Paul Whiteman, the King of Jazz, and Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, were both white performers who benefited from appropriation of Black music. This chapter compares two landmarks: Whiteman’s 1924 Experiment in Modern Music concert at Aeolian Hall and Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall performance. Performing in high-art venues served to legitimate their music. The chapter details their concert programs, examining racial implications, and considers Whiteman’s other Experiment in Modern Music concerts. This chapter reveals the bandleaders’ attitudes toward jazz and its history. Though both bandleaders commissioned classical composers, Goodman kept separate his pursuits in jazz and classical music, whereas Whiteman aimed to create a more symphonized form of jazz. Both were instrumental in the transition of jazz from dance music to concert music.