'When Swing Was King' is a Cleveland Pops Orchestra tribute to Benny Goodman

On tour with the Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey bands, trombonist Paul Ferguson and trumpeter Jack Schantz learned the fine points of swing. They did so in rousing arrangements by legends of the field, whose heyday ran from the mid-1930s to the mid-'40s.

"To play these arrangements, it gets into your blood," says Ferguson, himself an expert arranger.

The vibrant music known as swing will course through the veins of a stageful of artists Friday at Severance Hall, where Ferguson and Schantz will join colleagues in the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and guests in a host of beloved pieces that could prompt dancing in the aisles.

The program, "When Swing was King: A Salute to Benny Goodman and Friends," will be led by Pops conductor and clarinetist Carl Topilow.

"King of Swing" Goodman, whose centenary is being celebrated this year, often is credited with launching swing at his historic 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, though he never professed to having introduced the style.

He was inspired by black musicians, such as McKinney's Cotton Pickers and the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, which began developing the exuberant dance style a decade earlier.

With an ear toward the real swing thing, Goodman hired Henderson to pen arrangements for his big band.

"After Benny Goodman's success, a lot of bands started doing the same stuff," says Schantz, a faculty member at the University of Akron and the former artistic director of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.

"Swing wasn't polite. It was much more youth-oriented and physical."

There were good reasons for the high spirits.

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