Russel B. Nye

Music in the Twenties: The Jean Goldkette Orchestra

Only the enthusiast of popular music is likely, these days, to remember the name of Jean Goldkette, and only the few who are familiar with the music of the twenties recognize the importance of his Jean Goldkette Victor Recording Orchestra of 1926–27, the first large swinging dance band. It was this band of which Rex Stewart, who heard it at its first New York opening, wrote, “It was, without any question, the greatest in the world … the original predecessor to any large white dance Orchestra that followed, up to Benny Goodman.” “Even Goodman,” Stewart continued, “did not come close to the tremendous sound of Goldkette….” This is, of course, high praise from one who was himself part of a great musical organization, Fletcher Hendersons, and later of Ellingtons. Yet if one listens to their records and assembles the comments made by those who, like Stewart, worked the same clubs and played the same jobs, one tends to agree with latter-day critic Brian Rust, who in speaking of the era called the Goldkette Victor outfit “the greatest band of them all.” It is time, no doubt, that the place of this group and of the organization that Goldkette developed was established in the historical stream of American popular music.