Jazz saxophonist and composer Benny Golson dies at 95
Send a link to a friend
[September 24, 2024]
By KAREN MATTHEWS
NEW YORK (AP) — Jazz great Benny Golson, a tenor saxophonist and
composer of standards such as “Killer Joe” and “Along Came Betty," has
died. He was 95.
Golson died Saturday at his home in Manhattan after a short illness,
said Golson’s longtime agent, Jason Franklin.
Over his seven-decade musical career, Golson worked with some of the
biggest luminaries in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton
and John Coltrane. He built much of his reputation not as a performer
but from his compositions, which also included “I Remember Clifford,”
written in 1956 after trumpeter Clifford Brown, a friend, died in a car
crash at age 25.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Golson began learning the piano at age
9 and switched to the saxophone at age 14. He was still in high school
when he started performing with other local musicians, including
Coltrane, a childhood friend.
Golson began writing and arranging music while attending Howard
University.
After stints in Gillespie’s big band and in drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz
Messengers, Golson co-founded The Jazztet in 1959 with flugelhorn master
Art Farmer.
The Jazztet disbanded in 1962, and Golson moved on to writing music for
movies and for television shows such as “Mannix,” “M-A-S-H” and
“Mission: Impossible.” He also arranged music for performers including
Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls and Dusty Springfield.
After a hiatus of more than a dozen years, Golson resumed playing the
saxophone in the mid-1970s and launched a new version of the Jazztet
with Farmer in 1982. He continued performing and writing music into his
90s.
[to top of second column]
|
Benny Golson speaks at the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz
Master Awards Ceremony and Concert held in New York, Jan. 11, 2011.
(AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)
He published “Whisper Not: The
Autobiography of Benny Golson” in 2016.
Franklin, who worked with Golson for 25 years, said Golson stopped
performing when COVID-19 shut down music venues in 2020 but
continued working on projects, such as giving interviews for a
forthcoming documentary, “Benny Golson: Looking Beyond The Horizon.”
Franklin said Golson saw a rough cut of the film a few weeks ago and
loved it. “He was so happy he got to see it,” he said.
Golson released dozens of albums as a solo artist and as a member of
various ensembles.
He appeared as himself in the 2004 Steven Spielberg movie “The
Terminal,” in which the main character, played by Tom Hanks, travels
to New York from a fictional Eastern European country to obtain
Golson's autograph, which he needs to complete a collection of
signatures of all of the 58 jazz musicians who assembled for the
famous 1958 group photo “A Great Day in Harlem.”
Actor and musician Steve Martin recalled the film scene in a post on
X on Sunday and said, “Thanks for all of the great music.”
With Golson's death, Sonny Rollins is the last living subject of the
photo who was an adult when it was taken.
Golson's survivors include his wife, Bobbie Golson, daughter Brielle
Golson and several grandchildren. Three sons preceded him in death.
All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved |