Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman,[1] (May 30, 1909 ? June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman". Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children[2] of poor Jewish immigrants from Poland who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father, David Goodman, was a tailor from Warsaw, his mother, Dora Rezinski, was from Kaunas. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland and moved to Chicago before Benny was born.[3]