Goodman Talks to Press About Nikita

Nikita Khrushchev doesn't swing, according to Benny Goodman.

"He told me, 'I don't like your jazz,'" the famed clarinetist said at a press conference yesterday, "but he was very tactful. He said he didn't like Russian jazz either."

Goodman, who is in town for a concert at Symphony Hall tonight, apparently became something of an expert on Soviet life during his six-week tour of Russia this spring. He dealt easily with questions about Soviet consumer goods ("There aren't many"), security ("I'm sure our hotel room was bugged"), and food ("Don't go there on a gourmet tour"). But he sidestepped a question about whether Russians "are learning to think for themselves." "I don't know," he said.

Goodman's trip was sponsored by the State Department as part of a cultural exchange and went off almost without a hitch. The only incident took place in Tiflis, where a crowd of nationalistic Georgians booed singer Joya Sherill when she sang a song in Russian.

"We didn't know that Georgians are very anti-Russian." Goodman said. "Apparently singing that Russian song in Tiflis was like playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic in Little Rock."

More Modern Jazz

The Soviet audiences were especially fond of Dixieland and swing numbers, but many wanted to hear more modern jazz. "They asked why I hadn't brought along Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, or some 'progressive' jazz man," Goodman said.

Goodman added that the young people in his audiences were the most enthusiastic for jazz. "The only badly received concerts came on opening night in each town when the bureaucrats turned out. Those government workers just don't swing," he mused.