<P> He also received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp . His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo and Jimmie Noone . Goodman learned quickly, becoming a strong player at an early age and soon playing professionally in various bands . </P> <P> Goodman made his professional debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on Chicago's West Side . He entered Harrison Technical High School in Chicago in 1922 . He joined the musicians' union in 1923 and by the age of 14 was in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke . Goodman attended Lewis Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1924 as a high - school sophomore, while also playing the clarinet in a dance hall band . (He was awarded an honorary LL. D. from IIT in 1968 .) </P> <P> When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicago's top bands, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, with which he made his first recordings in 1926 . When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar . His father's death was "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family," Goodman said . </P> <P> Goodman made his first record under his own name for Vocalion two years later . He recorded with the regular Pollack band and smaller groups drawn from the orchestra through 1929 . The side sessions produced scores of sides recorded for the various dimestore record labels under an array of group names, including Mills' Musical Clowns, Goody's Good Timers, the Hotsy Totsy Gang, Jimmy Backen's Toe Ticklers, Dixie Daisies, and Kentucky Grasshoppers . </P>

One of his bands important accomplishments was the racial integration of jazz performers