BENNY GOLSON… in brief

A rarity among contemporary jazzmen, Benny Golson is as accomplished a composer as he is a saxophonist. He was born in Philadelphia in 1929, and began his musical training on the piano before picking up the sax in his early teens. He learned to write music in a rather painstaking fashion, methodically transcribing the tunes off his favorite records into musical notation. Around the same time, Golson began serving his jazz apprenticeship, playing in jam sessions on Philadelphia's Columbus Ave. with fellow up-and-comers such as John Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and others.

After graduating from Howard University in 1950, Golson joined the first of a number of Rhythm 'n Blues groups, this one led by Benjamin Clarence "Bull Moose" Jackson. He got his first big break as a composer in January 1955, when James Moody recorded a song of his called "Blue Walk." Toward the end of the year, he got an even bigger break when Miles Davis recorded "Stablemates," a song Golson began to write during an intermission of a show, when he stayed on the bandstand after spotting someone in the audience whom he wished to avoid. As musical birector of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Golson spearheaded perhaps the most important period of that storied group's 46-year history. The Messengers' classic 1958 album Moanin' featured several Golson tunes, including "Blues March."

Beginning in the mid-1960s Golson shifted his attention away from the jazz world per se, and began writing for movies and television. The themes of several popular television shows, such as M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible, Room 222, The Partridge Family, Mannix, It Takes A Thief, and Where It's At (David Janssen), are marked with his smooth, melodious signature. Benny has also been called upon to create arrangements for many superstar musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, Lou Rawls, Diana Ross, Mel Torme, Dizzy Gillespie, David Sanborn, Max Roach, and many more.

While growing into the role of a jazz legend, Golson has undertaken a variety of ambitious projects in recent years.

• He was commissioned by the Lila Wallace Foundation to write a symphony which premiered at New York's Lincoln Center in 1993.
• In 1994 he wrote a piece for violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman which also premiered at Lincoln Center. During a two-year stint as a scholar-in-residence at William Patterson College, he lectured to students about music and sociology.
• He received an honorary doctorate and gave the commencement address to 1,500 graduates.
• A Guggenheim Fellowship awarded in 1993 enabled him to begin work on his second symphony.
• In 1995, together with J.J. Johnson and Tommy Flanagan, Golson was given the Jazz Masters award by the National Endowment of the Arts.
• At the moment, he is finalizing a major college textbook which will be published in 1998.

All of these honors and projects notwithstanding, Golson seems in recent years to have renewed his zest for playing. Since 1995 he has been a member and musical director of the all-star saxophone repertory band, Roots, which toured extensively in Europe and has recorded four albums. In 1996, Golson entered into a long-term relationship with New York's Arkadia Jazz. The first album for his new label is Up Jumped Benny, a live recording done in Switzerland with Kevin Hays on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass, and Carl Allen on drums. Next up is a collaboration with Harold Ashby, James Carter and Branford Marsalis, an album called Tenor Legacy a tribute to some of the great jazz tenor saxophone players. Also due from Arkadia Jazz is 40 Years of Benny Golson, an album featuring Benny, Art Farmer, and Curtis Fuller, plus pianist Geoff Keezer, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Joe Farnsworth. It will be released together with a video concert and a video documentary chronicling his stellar career.