Benny Golson#Awards and honors

{{Short description|American jazz saxophonist and composer (1929–2024)}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Benny Golson

| image = Benny Golson 1985 (cropped).jpg

| caption = Golson in 1985

| image_size =

| birth_name =

| alias =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1929|1|25}}

| birth_place = {{nowrap|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|9|21|1929|1|25}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| origin =

| instrument = Tenor saxophone

| genre = {{hlist|Jazz|bebop|hard bop}}

| occupation = {{hlist|Musician|composer|arranger}}

| years_active = 1949–2024

| label =

| past_member_of = The Jazztet

| website = {{url|https://www.bennygolson.com/}}

}}

Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson was known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer 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 jazz standards, including "I Remember Clifford", "Blues March", "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 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 25, 1929.{{cite book |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin (writer) |date=2006 |chapter=Golson, Benny |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpo0003unse_w1c2/page/806/mode/1up |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpo0003unse_w1c2/mode/1up |url-access=registration |volume=3 |edition=4th |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195313734 |page=806 |access-date=December 30, 2022 |via=Internet Archive}} 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 piano lessons at age nine;{{cite book |date=2004 |chapter=Benny Golson (1996) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/neajazzmastersam00nati_1/page/41/mode/1up |title=NEA Jazz Masters: America's Highest Honour in Jazz |url=https://archive.org/details/neajazzmastersam00nati_1/mode/1up |edition=2nd |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |oclc=1049898284 |page=41 |access-date=December 30, 2022 |via=Internet Archive}} his interest in music was nurtured at Benjamin Franklin High School in Philadelphia giving him ambitions to become a concert pianist;{{cite journal |last1=Merod |first1=Jim |last2=Golson |first2=Benny |name-list-style=amp |date=1995 |title=Forward Motion: An Interview with Benny Golson |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/303820 |url-access=registration |journal=Boundary 2 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=53–93 |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |issn=1527-2141 |doi=10.2307/303820 |jstor=303820 |access-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230064629/https://www.jstor.org/stable/303820 |url-status=live }} he was fascinated by the music of Brahms and Chopin. At age 13, he was taken to New York's Minton Playhouse, where bebop was born, and he experienced some bop pioneers including Thelonious Monk. He saw Lionel Hampton's band, featuring Arnett Cobb on tenor saxophone, at Philadelphia's Earle Theatre. Inspired, he switched to the saxophone at age 14. At the high school, he played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and Red Rodney. He later attended Howard University.

Career

File:Benny Golson.jpg

After graduating from Howard University, Golson joined Bull Moose Jackson's rhythm and blues band;{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/benny-golson-mn0000135391/biography|title=Benny Golson | Biography & History|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=July 27, 2021}} Tadd Dameron, 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 Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, with whom he recorded the classic Moanin' in 1958.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/moanin-mw0000241419|title=Moanin' – Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey | Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=AllMusic|access-date=July 27, 2021|archive-date=July 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727144831/https://www.allmusic.com/album/moanin-mw0000241419|url-status=live}}

Golson was working with the Lionel Hampton band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1956 when he learned that Clifford Brown, a noted and well-liked jazz trumpeter who had done a stint with him in Dameron's band,{{cite web|title=Clifford Brown Discography|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/clifford-brown/discography/|publisher=Jazz Discography Project|access-date=April 23, 2014|archive-date=July 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701213625/http://www.jazzdisco.org/clifford-brown/discography/|url-status=live}} had died in a car accident. Golson was so moved by the event {{Cite web|url=http://www.cliffordbrown.net/quotes/golson.html |title=Benny Golson |website=Clifford Brown|access-date=September 26, 2024}} that he composed the threnody "I Remember Clifford", as a tribute to a fellow musician and friend.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/irememberclifford.htm |title=I Remember Clifford (1957) |website=jazzstandards.com|access-date=September 26, 2024}}

In addition to "I Remember Clifford", many of Golson's other compositions have become jazz standards. 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 the Jazztet with Art Farmer, mainly playing his own compositions.{{cite book |last=Postif |first=François |date=1998 |title=Jazz me blues: Interviews et portraits de musiciens de jazz et de blues |url=https://archive.org/details/jazzmebluesinter00post/page/418/mode/1up |url-access=registration |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=Outre Mesure |isbn=2907891162 |oclc=1035905400 |page=418 |access-date=December 30, 2022 |via=Internet Archive}} 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 Mannix, Ironside, Room 222, M*A*S*H, The Partridge Family and Mission: Impossible. He also formulated and conducted arrangements to various recordings, such as Eric Is Here, a 1967 album by Eric Burdon, which features five of Golson's arrangements, conducted by Golson.[https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Burdon-The-Animals-Eric-Is-Here/release/521118 Credits – Eric Is Here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906180617/https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Burdon-The-Animals-Eric-Is-Here/release/521118 |date=September 6, 2017 }}; Discogs.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.

During the mid-1970s, Golson returned to jazz playing and recording. Critic Scott Yanow of AllMusic wrote that Golson's sax style underwent a major shift with his performing comeback, more resembling avant-garde Archie Shepp than the swing-era Don Byas influence of Golson's youth.Yanow, Scott. [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/benny-golson-mn0000135391/biography AllMusic biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406143526/https://www.allmusic.com/artist/benny-golson-mn0000135391/biography |date=April 6, 2019 }}, 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 played a cameo role in the 2004 movie The Terminal, related to his appearance in A Great Day in Harlem, a group photograph of prominent jazz musicians taken in 1958.{{cite web |last=Myers |first=Marc |author-link=Marc Myers |date=November 2, 2018 |title=A Great Day in Harlem, Revisited |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-great-day-in-harlem-revisited-1541168693 |website=Wall Street Journal |location=New York |access-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230071805/https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-great-day-in-harlem-revisited-1541168693 |url-status=live }} Main character Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) travels to the US from Europe to obtain Golson's signature; Golson was one of seven musicians then surviving from the photo, the others being Johnny Griffin (died 2008), Eddie Locke (died 2009), Hank Jones (died 2010), Marian McPartland (died 2013), Horace Silver (died 2014), and Sonny Rollins. Pianist Ray Bryant'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".{{cite book | last = Grandt | first = Jürgen E. | title =Gettin' Around: Jazz, Script, Transnationalism | publisher =University of Georgia Press | year =2018 | pages=113–120 }} The album Terminal 1 was released by Golson shortly after the film, as a "homage to Steven Spielberg", its director.{{cite web |last=Fordham |first=John |author-link=John Fordham (jazz critic)|date=July 29, 2004 |title=Benny Golson, Terminal 1 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jul/30/jazz.shopping2 |website=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=December 30, 2022}}

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 Don Byas." During the 1960s, however, he absorbed some of the techniques pioneered by his friend John Coltrane, whom he described as "an inextinguishable example of spiritual nobility." He is regarded as "one of the most significant contributors" to the development of hard bop jazz.{{cite journal |last=Fitzgerald |first=Michael |date=2017 |title=Whisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1961322977 |url-access=subscription |volume=48 |issue=1 |journal=ARSC Journal |pages=47–50,86 |publisher=Association for Recorded Sound Collections |issn= 2151-4402 |access-date=December 30, 2022 |id={{ProQuest|1961322977}}}}

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.{{cite web |last=Golson |first=Benny |title=Keeping my Music in its Place |url=https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101980729 |website=wol.jw.org |date=1980 |access-date=September 26, 2024}}

Golson died, following a short illness, at his home in Manhattan, New York, on September 21, 2024, at the age of 95.{{cite news |last=Schudel |first=Matt |title=Benny Golson, jazz saxophonist and composer of surpassing grace, dies at 95 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/09/22/jazz-composer-benny-golson-dies/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 22, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Richard |title=Benny Golson obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/25/benny-golson-obituary |newspaper=The Guardian |date=September 25, 2024 |access-date=September 26, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Habersetzer |first=Ulrich |title=Feeling fürs Besondere |url=https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/nachruf-jazz-saxophonist-benny-golson-100.html |work=BR |date=September 23, 2024 |language=de |access-date=September 26, 2024}}{{cite web | url=https://apnews.com/article/benny-golson-jazz-dead-8ca40289c6a217e6009c423dbae87465 | title=Jazz saxophonist and composer Benny Golson dies at 95 | website=Associated Press News | date=September 23, 2024 }}

Awards and honors

In 1996, Golson received the NEA Jazz Masters Award of the National Endowment for the Arts.{{cite web |title=Benny Golson |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/benny-golson |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=National Endowment for the Arts |archive-date=March 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319195215/https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/benny-golson |url-status=live }}

In 1999, Golson was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.{{Cite web |last=Media |first=Mountain |title=Golson, Benny |url=https://www.ejazzlines.com/big-band-arrangements/by-arranger/benny-golson-jazz-big-band-charts/ |access-date=April 15, 2020 |website=Ejazzlines.com |language=en |archive-date=March 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330014646/https://www.ejazzlines.com/big-band-arrangements/by-arranger/benny-golson-jazz-big-band-charts/ |url-status=live }}

In October 2007, Golson received the Mellon Living Legend Legacy Award, presented by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center. 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.{{cite web |last=Blake |first=Sharon S. |date=November 12, 2007 |title=Jazz Week Capped With Sold-Out Concert |url=https://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/story/jazz-week-capped-sold-out-concert |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=Pitt Chronicle |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922181239/https://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/story/jazz-week-capped-sold-out-concert |url-status=live }}

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.{{Cite web |title=Benny Golson, a living jazz legend |url=https://www.selmer.fr/en/blogs/infos/benny-golson-legende-vivante-du-jazz |access-date=September 26, 2024 |website=selmer.fr |language=en }}{{Cite web |title=The University of Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame Iinductees |url=https://www.jazz.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/jazz_hall_of_fame.pdf |access-date=September 26, 2024 |website=jazz.pitt.edu |language=en }}

He received the Grammy Trustees Award in 2021.{{cite web |date=December 9, 2020 |title=The Recording Academy Announces 2021 Special Merit Awards Honorees: Selena, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Talking Heads, Lionel Hampton, Marilyn Horne, Salt-N-Pepa And More |url=https://www.recordingacademy.com/news/recording-academy-2021-special-merit-awards-lifetime-achievement-award |website=Grammy Awards |location=Santa Monica, CA |publisher=The Recording Academy |access-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230061430/https://www.recordingacademy.com/news/recording-academy-2021-special-merit-awards-lifetime-achievement-award |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite web |title=Benny Golson Award |url=http://huje.org/benny-golson-award |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=Howard University Jazz Ensemble |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301034306/http://huje.org/benny-golson-award/ |url-status=live }}

Notable compositions

"Stablemates", 1955
"Whisper Not", 1956
"Are You Real?", 1958
"I Remember Clifford", 1957
"Blues March", 1958
"Along Came Betty", 1958
"Five Spot After Dark", 1959{{cite web | url=https://secondhandsongs.com/work/152360/all | title=Song: Five Spot After Dark written by Benny Golson | SecondHandSongs | website=SecondHandSongs }}
"Killer Joe", 1960

Gallery

benny-golson01.jpg

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benny-golson05.jpg

Discography

Sources:[https://www.jazzdisco.org/benny-golson/discography/ Benny Golson Discography] jazzdisco.org[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/benny-golson-mn0000135391#discography Discography] AllMusic

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 Lem Winchester (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 Curtis Fuller (Baystate, 1981)
One More Mem'ry with Curtis Fuller (Baystate, 1982)
Time Speaks with Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw (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 (Arkadia Jazz, 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
Horizon Ahead (HighNote, 2016) – recorded in 2015

References

External links

{{Official|http://www.bennygolson.com/}}
{{AllMusic |id=benny-golson-mn0000135391 |title=Benny Golson}}
{{IMDb name|0326680|Benny Golson}}
{{Discogs artist|Benny Golson}}
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99814711 "Benny Golson Recreates His Great 'Jazztet{{'"}}]—Weekend Edition Saturday (NPR) interview, January 24, 2009
[http://www.bobrosenbaum.com/transcripts/golson1.pdf Listening In: An Interview with Benny Golson] by Bob Rosenbaum, KCRW-FM, Los Angeles, February 1982 (PDF file)
{{YouTube|-O1tdOmJ194|Benny Golson Interview at underyourskin}}