Martin Chilton, Culture Editor for The Telegraph online, today posted an article titled “Benny Goodman 1938 concert revived,” which begins,

“Benny Goodman’s 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall is one of the most famous in the history of jazz, lauded by author (and jazz fan) John Updike as “a marvelous and magical moment in music history.

“Updike heard it as a teenager, when it was first released on record in 1950 (it was the first double album and sold more than a million copies). . . .

“As Updike told Desert Island Discs, when he chose it as one of his record selections in 1995: ‘It’s such an intricate concert and Sing Sing Sing, which is the longest selection of it all, has the riff that the pianist Jess Stacy takes after hearing a number of trumpet and clarinet riffs. The story I later read was that he was listening to Claude Debussy before the concert and when his chance came to shine, the Debussy filtered into this jazz tune. It’s a really marvelous and magical passage, a great minute or two in the history of jazz.”

Updike may have created an Everyman in Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, but it’s a testament to his own status as a Renaissance man that his remarks on jazz are as valued as what he had to say about art, literature, or other aspects of culture.

Listen to the 1995 Desert Island Discs podcast featuring an interview with John Updike.