Goodman, Benny (Benjamin David), 1909-1986 Search this
Extent:
25 Cubic feet (75 boxes
)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Legal records
Magazines (periodicals)
Catalogs
Correspondence
Financial records
Music
Bank statements
Autobiographies
Articles
Tax records
Business records
Newsletters
Photographs
Recordings
Sheet music
Date:
1895-2001
Summary:
The collection documents Gabler's involvement in the recording industry and the evolution of Commodore Records. The documentation begins with the Commodore Radio Shop through its evolution to Commodore Music Shop. The collection also includes the beginnings of the Commodore record label and information detailing Gabler's 30 years as staff producer and later Vice-President in Charge of Artists and Repertoire at Decca Records (1941-1974). There is a small collection of black and white photographs chronicling the early years at the Commodore Music Shop, as well as jam sessions, often held at Jimmy Ryan's on 52nd Street. The collection also includes a vast array of audio recordings (mainly audiodiscs).
Scope and Contents:
Papers documenting Gabler's life and career, including: correspondence with family members, friends and people in the music business such as Sammy Davis, Jr. and Lucille Armstrong (Louis' wife); Gabler's writings, including an autobiography and numerous articles; music manuscripts and sheet music, the lyrics for some of which were written by Gabler, and other compositions written by others, including Red Norvo, Eddie Condon and others; legal and financial records, including royalty statements, tax papers and banking records; business records for Commodore and Decca, including correspondence from persons such as Norman Granz, Burl Ives, and Leonard Feather; Commodore and Decca legal records including licensing and trademark documents; publicity materials; production records, such as production logs and liner notes; printed materials such as catalogs, newsletters, magazines, and periodicals; papers relating to Gabler's affiliation with Bert Kaempfert, including correspondence, sheet music and lyrics, and production records; photographs of Gabler and his family and of numerous others in the music industry, including Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr., Bert Kaempfert, the Mills Brothers, Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, Louis Jordan, Peck Kelly, Sidney Bechet, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and numerous others, many taken in the studio during recording sessions; and audio recordings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into twenty-seven series.
Series 1: Personal Correspondence
Series 2: Writings by Milt Gabler
Series 3: Music Manuscripts and Sheet Music
Series 4: Personal Financial and Legal Records
Series 5: Commodore and Decca Correspondence and Gabler Rolodex
Series 6: Commodore and Decca Legal Records
Series 7: Commodore and Decca Financial
Series 8: Publicity
Series 9: Commodore and Decca Projects
Series 10: Production Records
Series 11: Commodore General Correspondence
Series 12: Commodore Financial Records
Series 13: Commodore Legal Records
Series 14: Commodore Production Records
Series 15: Commodore, Various Projects and Topical Files
Series 16: Commodore Publicity Records
Series 17: Business Cards
Series 18: Catalogs
Series 19: Newsletters
Series 20: Serials
Series 21: Monographs
Series 22: Newsclippings, Periodical Articles, and Advertisements
Series 23: Correspondence with Organizations
Series 24: Organization Membership cards
Series 25: Bert Kaempfert
Series 26: Photographs
Series 27: Audio Discs
Biographical / Historical:
Milt Gabler was born in Harlem, New York on May 20, 1911. He began managing his father's radio and small appliance store, the Commodore Radio Shop, while still a teen. Gabler convinced his father to expand the business and sell audio recordings. Soon Gabler pioneered the concept of marketing reissues by leasing discontinued masters from various record companies (mainly Victor, Columbia, Vocalion, and Brunswick). Eventually the Gablers changed the name of the family business to the Commodore Music Shop. By the early 1930's Gabler founded the first mail order record label, United Hot Clubs of America, to reach an even greater audience of jazz enthusiasts.
In 1935 Gabler began publicizing the music shop by staging a series of Sunday afternoon jam sessions at several different recording studios along 52nd Street. Later the jam sessions moved to the nearby jazz club, Jimmy Ryan's.
In 1938 Gabler founded the Commodore music label. It was the first American recording label created exclusively for jazz music. A recording session for Eddie Condon's Windy City Seven at Brunswick Studios was the first original Commodore recording. In 1939 Gabler recorded Billie Holiday's controversial "Strange Fruit", which became Commodore's first major commercial success. Other notable Commodore artists include Sidney Bechet, Jonah Jones, Peck Kelley, Red Norvo, Ralph Sutton, and Teddy Wilson.
Gabler began as a staff producer at Decca Records in 1941 and worked with artists from many different musical genres: Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Brenda Lee, the Weavers, and Louis Jordan, among others. Gabler also began writing lyrics in collaboration with Decca songwriters/composers. In 1954 Gabler produced the first recordings by Bill Haley and the Comets. In addition, Gabler continued to run the Commodore recording label until 1957. Gabler also managed the Commodore Music Shop until 1958, when he began working full-time at Decca as Vice-President in Charge of Artists and Repertoire.
Throughout the 1960's Gabler served as lyricist in a number of collaborations with Bert Kaempfert and Herbert Rehbein. Gabler retained his influential position at Decca until 1974 when the corporation moved to the West Coast. Through the Decca years, Gabler had saved the Commodore masters and in 1974 began to reissue the recordings through Atlantic, Columbia Special Products, and finally United Hot Clubs of America. In 1987 Mosaic Records also began to reissue the entire catalog of Commodore recordings.
In the last decades of his life Gabler remained active in a number of professional organizations, most notably the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which bestowed upon him a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 1991. Gabler died in New York on July 20, 2001.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Milt Gabler estate, through Lee Gabler.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use. Some materials restricted; but most are available for unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Several items of personal correspondence contained private medical information about living individuals. The originals were removed and will remain sealed until 2030. Copies with the sensitive information redacted are available for research use in the collection.
Access to audio recordings for which no reference copy exists requires special arrangements with Archives Center staff. Please ask the reference archivist for additional information.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
160 7" reel-to-reel audiotapes and 12 transcriptions of 15 oral history interviews with prominent jazz musicians and their professional relationships with Duke Ellington. Tapes are copies of originals held at the at Institute for Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.
Interviewees include Sonny Greer, Russell Procope, Clark Terry, Juan Tizol, Tom Whaley, Cootie Williams, Marshal Royal, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Jones, Quentin Jackson, Barney Bigard, Charlie Barnet, Lawrence Brown, Red Callender, Al Hibbler, Irving Mills, Ray Nance, and Mercer Ellington.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series
Series 1: Transcripts, 1975-1980
Series 2: Master Tapes
Series 3: Reference Cassette Tapes, 1974-1984
Provenance:
Collection donated by Dan Morgenstern, Institute of Jazz Studies, January 3, 1992.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Extent:
4 Cassette tapes
Container:
Box 10 (Series 3)
Type:
Archival materials
Audio
Cassette tapes
Date:
1976-05-06
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Extent:
7 Cassette tapes
Container:
Box 10 (Series 3)
Type:
Archival materials
Audio
Cassette tapes
Date:
1976-05-13
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 1
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240897]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 2
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240898]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 3
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240899]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 4
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240900]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 5
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240901]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 6
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240902]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 7
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240903]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 8
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240904]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 9
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240905]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 10
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240906]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 11
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240907]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 12
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240908]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 13
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240909]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Container:
Box 14
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [683240910]
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1975-1980
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Rutgers University. Institute of Jazz Studies Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the master tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Archives Center staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project, 1971-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
