jazz musician; composer; saxophonist
Personal Information
Born Benjamin Golson on January 25, 1929, in Philadelphia, PA
Education: Attended Howard University, 1947-50.
Career
Arranger for Howard University band, late 1940s; performed in Philadephia clubs, early 1950s; joined band of R&B singer Bull Moose Jackson, 1952; performed with Lionel Hampton and Tadd Dameron bands, 1953-54; performed with Earl Bostic band, mid-1950s; joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, 1958; with Art Farmer, co-founded Jazztet, 1959; Jazztet disbanded, 1962; wrote television, film, and advertisement scores, 1960s and 1970s; re-formed Jazztet, 1982; toured widely, 1990s and 2000s.
Life's Work
When he was asked by the Irish Times whether he considered his composing or performing activities more satisfying, Benny Golson responded that "It's like having two wives. I'm a musical bigamist. I can't decide, so I just go on with both of them." As an arranger and performer with bands led by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Art Blakey, and with his own Jazztet ensemble, Golson made important contributions as a tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. As the composer of music for popular 1970s television shows such as M*A*S*H and The Mod Squad, Golson might be described as one of America's most famous unknown composers.
Benny Golson was born on January 25, 1929, in Philadelphia. Despite hard times brought on by the Depression, his mother owned an upright piano that inspired Golson to take up the instrument at age nine--and to dream of becoming a concert pianist. "That was aberrational in my neighborhood," he told Down Beat. "All you heard there was the blues." A Lionel Hampton concert featuring saxophonist Arnett Cobb at Philadelphia's Earl Theater steered the 14-year-old Golson in the direction of jazz and the saxophone.
Life "Changed" by Charlie Parker
Golson and a saxophonist friend, jazz-virtuoso-to-be John Coltrane, absorbed from records and live performances the styles of the great saxophonists of the day: Lester Young, Don Byas, and, at an Academy of Music concert in Philadelphia in 1945, bebop pioneer Charlie Parker. "After we heard that concert that night, our lives changed," Golson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It was epochal, what was happening then." Golson began to develop a personal sax style that combined the warmth and fluidity of the older players with elements of Parker's harmonic adventurousness.
Studying at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Golson chafed at the restrictions of classical music's standardized procedures. One day, Golson told Down Beat, his teacher was reviewing the class's turned-in composition assignments at the piano. "When she got to mine, after the first chord resolved to the second, that red pencil made a big X, and then she made another red X at the next resolution. She looked at me, almost disgusted, and said, 'Oh, Mr. Golson, what have you done?' The next day, I put my things in my little broken-down car, and drove off into the sunset."
Golson drove a furniture truck for a time, but kept knocking on musical doors and finally landed a touring slot with the band of rhythm-and-blues singer Bull Moose Jackson in 1952. There he met pianist Tadd Dameron, who was aiming toward a jazz band of his own and spotted Golson's skills as an arranger. That led to slots in Dameron's band and that of vibes master Lionel Hampton in 1953 and 1954. Golson honed his arranging chops by studying Dameron's arrangements closely, and during a stretch with the band of alto saxman Earl Bostic, he came into his own as a composer and arranger. After trumpeter Miles Davis (at Coltrane's suggestion) recorded Golson's tune "Stablemates," Golson found his compositions in demand among modern jazz musicians.
Composed Tribute to Clifford Brown
One of Golson's most famous compositions was "I Remember Clifford," an homage to his friend Clifford Brown, a trumpeter who died in an auto crash in 1956. The following year, Golson made his first recording as a bandleader, New York Scene. In 1958 Golson joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, a modernistic ensemble that pushed Golson's own playing in a sharper and less mellifluous direction. Blakey stimulated Golson's own compositional creativity as well, and many of his originals from this period, including "Blues March" and "Along Came Betty," are regarded as jazz classics.
Golson and trumpeter Art Farmer co-founded the Jazztet in 1959. With top-notch players such as McCoy Tyner on piano and Curtis Fuller on trombone, the Jazztet became a fixture of New York's vigorous modern jazz scene and released six albums before disbanding in 1962. Then, perhaps because of the financial demands placed on him by a growing family, Golson temporarily laid his saxophone aside and spent much of the 1960s and 1970s composing music in a more popular vein. He composed big-band arrangements in New York and in Europe for a time, and then, in 1967, he moved to Hollywood and entered the world of big-time film and television soundtracks.
That world was just beginning to open up to African Americans in the late 1960s, thanks largely to the efforts of the phenomenally successful composer and producer Quincy Jones. It was partly at Jones's urging that Golson moved to Hollywood, and Golson followed Jones' example, composing a series of U.S. and foreign film soundtracks, musical backgrounds for television commercials, and, most familiarly, television soundtracks heard on such hit series as Ironsides, M*A*S*H, and Room 222. Golson's was not a household name at this point, but his music was heard by millions of Americans. "Other than Quincy, the rest of us just got things that were sort of left over," Golson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "But [the studios] were so busy, there was an abundance of work for all of us."
Returned to Live Jazz Playing
Meanwhile, Golson was taking private composition lessons and contemplating a return to pure jazz, although he had completely laid his horn aside. "But the thinking process was working the whole time, and when I picked up the horn again in the late '70s, I sounded different, although it took about 10 years before I felt comfortable again," he told Down Beat. "I had to get my imagination oiled up." Another factor was that the rise of synthesizers and electronic soundtrack music was gradually reducing the need for live musicians in Hollywood.
Golson performed and made several recordings in the late 1970s, and made his jazz comeback official when he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982. Touring in Japan, Europe, and the United States, Golson impressed listeners with a sound that had harder edges as compared with his previous efforts. From the 1980s onward, Golson divided his time between the United States and Europe, and many of his recordings were first released on Japanese labels. He continued to compose music in all the arenas in which he had spent his musical life: he wrote new jazz compositions, scored music for television commericials, and penned a number of classical works including a symphonic piece, Two Faces (which had its premiere at New York's Alice Tully Hall in 1992), a ballet, and solo piano music.
Remaining active well into his eighth decade, Golson added yet another activity to his packed schedule--he began giving occasional lectures, not only on music but also on race relations. His motivation, he explained to the Irish Times, was not so much personal as historical. "[Racism] doesn't disturb me and it didn't disturb me when I was coming up as a kid. Racism? I wanted to play the music. I turned a deaf ear to all that stuff." In the late 1990s and early 2000s Golson toured with an all-star group called Roots and with the Keith Copeland trio, and continued to compose; the year 2001 brought a new classical commission from the Guggenheim Foundation. "I'm still stretching and striving," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette--; and really, he had never stopped.
Awards
Down Beat magazine New Star award, 1960 (with Jazztet).
Works
Selected discography
- New York Scene, Original Jazz, 1957.
- Meet the Jazztet, MCA, 1960.
- Free, Argo, 1962.
- Tune In, Turn On to the Hippest Commercials, Verve, 1967.
- Killer Joe, Columbia, 1977.
- Benny Golson Quartet, Delta, 1990.
- I Remember Miles, Evidence, 1992.
Further Reading
Books
- Carr, Ian, et al., Jazz: The Rough Guide, Rough Guides, 2000.
- Contemporary Musicians, volume 21, Gale, 1998.
- Feather, Leonard, and Ira Gitler, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, Oxford, 1999.
- Down Beat, July 2001, p. 40.
- Irish Times, September 8, 2001, p. 63.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 5, 1993, p. 18.
- The World and I, March 1997, p. 116.
- All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com.
— James M. Manheim
