The King of Swing, Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman was one of the first band leaders to lead an integrated band during segregation era. He hired Fletcher Henderson, a black musician who led his own excellent band and managed to create music that had a lot of the excitement of less formalized jazz. His small group started with the trio of Goodman himself, White and Jewish, on clarinet, drummer Jean Kruper, and Black pianist Teddy Wilson. Lionel Hampton later quoted him as saying: 'We need both the black keys and the white keys' But this is 80 years ago - it's not so well-meaning now in 2018.