Herb Benthien, Longtime Bandleader

Herb Allen Benthien's silky clarinet-playing earned him billing as "The Benny Goodman of the Northwest."

Leading dance and Dixieland bands from Alaska to Oregon for 60 years - but mainly setting toes tapping at clubs in Skagit County - Mr. Benthien made Dixieland jazz sound forever young.

He also inspired his daughter, Cheryl Benthien-Allen of Boston, to take up music: This year she marks 18 years with the vocal-jazz group Manhattan Transfer. She began singing at age 16 with her father's band at the Mount Vernon Elks Club.

She told The Seattle Times in 1979 that years of hearing her father play tunes of the Swing Era and beyond primed her to join the Transfer mere months after she left the family home in Mount Vernon to seek work in New York.

Mr. Benthien died of heart failure last Saturday (Oct. 4). He was 83.

Benthien-Allen and a seven-piece Dixieland band will perform in a celebration of his life at 1 p.m. today at Mount Vernon Elks No. 1604 Club, 2111 Riverside Drive, Mount Vernon.

Born to schoolteachers near Conway, Skagit County, Mr. Benthien grew up in Mount Vernon, where he fell in love with music while playing in the school band. He majored in music at Bellingham Normal School (now Western Washington University), thinking of teaching, but then got a gig playing on a ship bound for China.

During the Depression he played at a speakeasy in the former mining town of Monte Cristo. He also played in a relative's band at Parker's Ballroom on Aurora Avenue.

Alaska beckoned in the late 1940s, and he played at saloons and lodges in and around Anchorage. Then came a stint at the Seven Cedars dance hall in Mount Vernon and the Forest Grove Ballroom in Sumas, Whatcom County, where his band drew record crowds.

This success led to the Herb Benthien Band's long run at the Mount Vernon Elks.

His son Leonard, of Greenacres, Spokane County, said Mr. Benthien once sent a tape of his music to Lawrence Welk, "who wanted him to come down to L.A. to audition. But my dad didn't want to leave the Northwest. He also turned down a job with Guy Lombardo the day I was born."

Mr. Benthien worked days as a car mechanic and salesman, an appliance salesman and a logger. He loved being outdoors, whether logging, hunting or fishing.

"But he always said music was his life," said his son. "He said it got him through the Depression. People with a quarter would have to decide whether to buy a loaf of bread or go to a dance. Many times they would go to the dance."

Other survivors include Mr. Benthien's son Larry Benthien of Mount Vernon; stepson, Jerry Kaasa, Milton, Pierce County; brother, Arden Benthien, Woodburn, Ore.; sister, Elva Volle, Meridian, Idaho; five grandchildren; 12 step-grandchilden; and 25 great-grandchildren.

Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is: cbee-new@seatimes.com