ABSTRACT
This book explores the meaning of Jewish involvement in the world of American jazz.2 By way of introduction, consider the most famous Jewish jazz musician, Benny Goodman. Born in a Chicago ghetto to Russian immigrant parents, he went on to fame and fortune as “The King of Swing.” Though American Jews were proud of his success, Goodman, like many in his generation, made little public acknowledgment of his ethnicity. But unlike most Jews of his generation, he took things one step further by marrying a gentile-and not just any gentile, but a blue-blooded descendant of the ultra-WASP Vanderbilts.
