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   » » Wiki: Benny Golson
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Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American and jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of and , more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson was known for co-founding and co-leading with trumpeter in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982.

Many of Golson's compositions have become , including "I Remember Clifford", "", "Stablemates", "Whisper Not", "Along Came Betty", and "Killer Joe". He is regarded as "one of the most significant contributors" to the development of hard bop jazz, and was a recipient of a Grammy Trustees Award in 2021.


Early life and education
He was born Benny Golson in , Pennsylvania, on January 25, 1929.
(2025). 9780195313734, Oxford University Press. .
His father, also Bennie Golson, left the family early. His mother Celadia brought the family up, working as a seamstress and a waitress. Golson witnessed racism first at age eight on a trip to Georgia with an uncle. He began taking lessons at age nine; his interest in music was nurtured at Benjamin Franklin High School in giving him ambitions to become a concert pianist; he was fascinated by the music of and Chopin. At age 13, he was taken to New York's Minton Playhouse, where was born, and he experienced some bop pioneers including . He saw 's band, featuring on , at Philadelphia's . Inspired, he switched to the at age 14. At the high school, he played with several other promising young musicians, including , , , , Philly Joe Jones, and . He later attended Howard University.


Career
After graduating from Howard University, Golson joined Bull Moose Jackson's rhythm and blues band; , whom Golson came to consider the most important influence on his writing, was Jackson's pianist at the time.

From 1953 to 1959, Golson played with Dameron's band and then with the bands of , , , , and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, with whom he recorded the classic Moanin' in 1958.

Golson was working with the Lionel Hampton band at the in in 1956 when he learned that , a noted and well-liked jazz trumpeter who had done a stint with him in Dameron's band, had died in a car accident. Golson was so moved by the event that he composed the "I Remember Clifford", as a tribute to a fellow musician and friend.

In addition to "I Remember Clifford", many of Golson's other compositions have become . Songs such as "Stablemates", "Killer Joe", "Whisper Not", "Along Came Betty", and "Are You Real?", have been performed and recorded numerous times by many musicians.Bailey, Phil and Hancock, Benny (1979) Benny Golson: Eight Jazz Classics, p. iii. Jamey Aebersold Jazz.

From 1959 to 1962, Golson co-led with , mainly playing his own compositions.

(1998). 9782907891165, Outre Mesure. .
Golson then left jazz to concentrate on studio and orchestral work for 12 years. During this time, he composed music for such television shows as , Ironside, Room 222, M*A*S*H, The Partridge Family and . He also formulated and conducted arrangements to various recordings, such as Eric Is Here, a 1967 album by , which features five of Golson's arrangements, conducted by Golson. Credits – Eric Is Here ; Discogs.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.

During the mid-1970s, Golson returned to jazz playing and recording. Critic of wrote that Golson's sax style underwent a major shift with his performing comeback, more resembling avant-garde than the swing-era influence of Golson's youth.Yanow, Scott. AllMusic biography , accessed April 6, 2019 He made a successful second career playing in clubs and on festivals internationally. In 1982, Golson re-organized the Jazztet with Farmer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, p. 261. Oxford University Press.

Golson is central to the plot of the 2004 movie , and makes a cameo appearance as himself. In the film, main character Viktor Navorski () has the autographs of everyone who appears in A Great Day in Harlem, a famous 1958 photo of prominent jazz musicians, except Golson's; he has traveled to the US from Europe to obtain this final signature. Pianist 's song "Something in B-Flat," which was included on Golson's debut album as a leader, Benny Golson's New York Scene, can be heard during a scene where Viktor is painting and redecorating part of an airport terminal; in a later scene, Golson's band performs "Killer Joe". The album Terminal 1 was released by Golson shortly after the film, as a "homage to Steven Spielberg".


Musical style
Golson's early playing has been described as "characterised by a distinctively fibrous, slightly hoarse tone ... firmly within the mainstream-modern tradition exemplified by another of his heroes, the tenor player ." During the 1960s, however, he absorbed some of the techniques pioneered by his friend , whom he described as "an inextinguishable example of spiritual nobility." He is regarded as "one of the most significant contributors" to the development of jazz.


Personal life
Golson was married to Seville Golson; they had three sons, Odis, Reggie and Robert, and the marriage ended in divorce. He married the ballet dancer Bobbie Hurd in 1959; they had a daughter, Brielle. In an interview with Awake! on October 8, 1980, Golson said that since the late 1960s he and his wife had become members of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Golson died, following a short illness, at his home in Manhattan, New York, on September 21, 2024, at the age of 95.


Awards and honors
In 1996, Golson received the NEA Jazz Masters Award of the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1999, Golson was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.

In October 2007, Golson received the Mellon Living Legend Legacy Award, presented by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation at a ceremony at the . Additionally, during the same month, he won the University of Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award at the university's 37th Annual Jazz Concert in the Carnegie Music Hall.

In November 2009, Golson was inducted into the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame, during a performance at the University of Pittsburgh's annual jazz seminar and concert.

He received the Grammy Trustees Award in 2021.

The Howard University Jazz Studies program created a prestigious award in his honor called the "Benny Golson Jazz Master Award" in 1996. Many distinguished jazz artists have received this award.


Notable compositions
  • "Stablemates", 1955
  • "Whisper Not", 1956
  • "Are You Real?", 1958
  • "I Remember Clifford", 1957
  • "", 1958
  • "Along Came Betty", 1958
  • "Five Spot After Dark", 1959
  • "Killer Joe", 1960


Gallery
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Discography
Sources: Benny Golson Discography jazzdisco.org Discography

  • The Modern Touch (Riverside 1958) – recorded in 1957
  • The Other Side of Benny Golson (Riverside, 1958)
  • Benny Golson and the Philadelphians (United Artists, 1958)
  • Benny Golson's New York Scene (Contemporary, 1959) – recorded in 1957
  • Gone with Golson (New Jazz, 1959)
  • Groovin' with Golson (New Jazz, 1959)
  • Winchester Special with (New Jazz, 1959)
  • Gettin' with It (New Jazz, 1960) – recorded in 1959
  • Take a Number from 1 to 10 (Argo, 1961) – recorded in 1960–61
  • Pop + Jazz = Swing (Audio Fidelity, 1962)
  • Turning Point (Mercury, 1962)
  • Free (Argo, 1963) – recorded in 1962
  • The Roland Kirk Quartet Meets the Benny Golson Orchestra with Roland Kirk (Mercury, 1964)
  • Stockholm Sojourn (Prestige, 1965) – recorded in 1964
  • Tune In, Turn On (Verve, 1967)
  • Killer Joe (Columbia, 1977)
  • California Message with (Baystate, 1981)
  • One More Mem'ry with Curtis Fuller (Baystate, 1982)
  • with and (Baystate, 1983)
  • This Is for You, John (Baystate, 1984) – recorded in 1983
  • Stardust with Freddie Hubbard (Denon, 1987)
  • Benny Golson Quartet Live (Dreyfus, 1991) – recorded in 1989
  • Benny Golson Quartet (LRC Ltd. 1990)
  • Domingo (Dreyfus, 1992) – recorded in 1991
  • I Remember Miles (Alfa Jazz, 1993) – recorded in 1992
  • That's Funky (Meldac Jazz, 1995) – recorded in 1994
  • Up Jumped Benny (, 1997) – recorded in 1996
  • Tenor Legacy (Arkadia Jazz, 1998) – recorded in 1996
  • Remembering Clifford (Milestone, 1998) – recorded in 1997
  • One Day, Forever (Arkadia Jazz, 2001) – recorded in 1996–2000
  • Terminal 1 (Concord, 2004)
  • New Time, New 'Tet (Concord, 2009) – recorded in 2008
  • (HighNote, 2016) – recorded in 2015


External links

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