Today’s Music: Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian Two-Fer, “Solo Flight” and “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise” (1941)

Today is Benny Goodman’s birthday (b. 1909; d. 1986). The cut below features both the Benny Goodman Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Quartet with Charlie Christian. Benny wasn’t known as the “King of Swing” for nothing, and Charlie is the founding father, along with Django Reinhardt, of modern jazz guitar. Some younger musicians dismiss the jazz of the ’30s and ’40s as the music of their parents or grandparents — they don’t know what they’re missing and it laid the foundation for rock and roll.