Goodman tribute swings into Stranahan
Written by Vicki L. Kroll | | news@toledofreepress.comDave Bennett was 10 years old when his grandparents gave him a clarinet in 1994. That year, he started listening to Benny Goodman.
Dave Bennett
“It was very exciting music. It had a lot of drive, a lot of emotion. The tapes that I got for Christmas that year had all of Benny’s best stuff on it,” he said. “Just a lot of passion, sensitivity in the ballads that he played — it really hit me in my heart — I fell in love with it.”
While the Counting Crows, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men and the Gin Blossoms were on the radio, Bennett was happy listening to the band leader known as the “King of Swing.”
“My friends weren’t hip to what I was listening to,” he recalled. “I remember clearly showing them the tapes and stuff I was listening to and they really dug it as soon as they heard it.”
That quintessentially cool, upbeat music is still winning fans.
“It’s very appealing music; it’s classic,” Bennett said. “It’s all about forgetting your troubles or maybe some of the songs tell you how you’re feeling; you don’t even have to have words to do that. People, generation after generation, just seem to like it and even though it’s not on the top 10 charts like it was 40 or 50 years ago, there’s still an underground audience for it.”
The 24-year-old clarinetist and his septet will be in a sentimental mood at The Stranahan Theater for the “Tribute to Benny Goodman” at 2 p.m. May 21. Tickets range from $19 to $30.
Last year Bennett released a disc, “Dave Bennett Celebrates 100 Years of Benny.” And while he sounds like Goodman on clarinet, he also oozes that swing style, sporting double-breasted suits, spats and wire-rim glasses.
“I don’t know if it’s because of Benny’s 100th birthday [this year] or not, but I’ve gotten that recently about my look,” he said from his home in Waterford, Mich. “Kind of the truth of the matter is that I needed glasses just about the time I picked up the clarinet; my vision got pretty bad.
“I’ve always worn my hair kind of the same way. So I picked up the clarinet and I just sort of realized — I looked at pictures of Benny and me, and I loved the resemblance. I wouldn’t say that I do it just to look like Benny, but lo and behold, there is a very strong resemblance there.”
While the young musician who plays six instruments and sings is having fun being a hepcat, he has plans. Big plans.
“I currently am writing a lot of my own music; it’s a tall dream, but I would just like to basically invent a new type of music. Because you know Benny and all those guys that made it big, they were breaking new ground,” Bennett said. “I don’t like to think I’m copying Benny; I’m definitely paying tribute to him. But I’m sure if he were here he’d say to me, ‘You’ve got to do your own thing,’ because what he’s done has been done.”
For more informaiton, visit www.davebennett.com.
