Sometimes this Almanac makes us go on wonderful journeys. For example, I have been standing there for a few days, on January 18, 1944. I am in a New York hall where the largest concert in the history of jazz is being held (or one of the largest, after all it is always a matter of taste) . You can also listen to those notes again and judge for yourself by clicking on this YouTube link. But follow me well, because this is an innovation column and before enjoying the music we need to understand what the heck innovation has to do with the All American Jazz Concert that Esquire magazine organized at the Metropolitan in New York.
Meanwhile, it must be said that the MET had opened its doors in 1883 and for sixty years it had hosted only opera singers. It took the great war, the end of the great world war, to open up to jazz. The idea was from Esquire magazine which had the public vote for the greatest jazz players of the time and then invited them to perform all together in a great night of fundraising to support the costs of the war (at the end there will be 650 thousand dollars from ticket sales only).
The cast was impressive, the best of the best: Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Mildred Bailey, Red Norvo, Roy Eldridge, Jack Teagarden and Benny Goodman to name a few. Like a football team with Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo and Messi. The hall was packed, the next day the New York Times will say that there were three thousand and six hundred enthusiastic people. It was a sensational and unrepeatable evening. Which also marked a small big step in the history of innovation. We said that the jazz greats were all there that night, but that’s not right: Benny Goodman, considered the king of swing, had to stay in Los Angeles because he had a Hollywood engagement. Yet he too “was” in New York, he too performed, in a song, with his legendary clarinet in one of his warhorses, Rachel’s Dream. How did he do it? He connected via radio: yes, he connected via radio and played along with the others. It was an ancestor of streaming, certainly imperfect, but for this reason even more resplendent.
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