Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

“Tackley’s is the most thorough study of this celebrated event. She sifts through the prior writings and inflated claims to come up with an original, level-headed, song-by-song analysis-and it’s a good read!” –Lewis Porter, Professor of Music, Rutgers University-Newark

“Catherine Tackley’s valuable study details the fascinating story behind one of jazz’s widely acknowledged milestones. Through meticulous cultural criticism, sound analysis, and archival research, Tackley unravels the social politics, aesthetics, and commercial interests that brought Benny Goodman’s famous concert to the public ears, on to vinyl and into its eventual iconic status. We learn to view this concert’s recording as a complex creation of multiple modes of mediation and not simply as proof that jazz became ‘a lady.’ Tackley shows us she’s much more than that!” –Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania

“A distinguished contribution to the literature…Highly recommended.” —Choice

“As one who continues to listen and thrill to the recorded version of this landmark event, I found this study fascinating.” –W. Royal Stokes, author of Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talks About Their Lives and Careers

“[U]nlikely one will find any related subject matter not covered thoroughly here.” — IAJRC Journal

“Throughout the entire text, Tackley engages productive and insightful questions about the relationships between live performance, recordings, publich and journalistic discourses, and media technologies as they pertain to the 1938 concert”–Twentieth-Century Music

Catherine Tackley is Senior Lecturer in Music at The Open University, UK. She is the author of The Evolution of Jazz in Britain, 1880-1935 (Ashgate, 2005) and is a co-editor of the Jazz Research Journal (Equinox). Catherine is Director of Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats Big Band.