The first time I heard Benny Goodman was in Chicago when we was a kid of eight or nine, and he was doing an imitation of Ted Lewis, who, of course, was then the king. Later, at fifteen or sixteen, and just before I brought him to the Coast to work with me at the Venice Ballroom, he was playing a mixture of Jimmie Noone, Leon Rappolo, Buster Bailey, and other great clarinet players. He always had a terrific gift for handling his instrument, that combination of technique and tone, plus the one thing every musician seeks--a style that can be identified before his name is announced. That style is his own and he developed it himself. << less