Benny Golson

American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger

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.

Read more about this composer on Wikipedia.

Works

A Change of Heart
Along Came Betty
Are You Real?
Bean Bag
Big Ben
Blue Heart
Blue Thoughts
Blues After Dark
Blues March
Blues On Down
City Lights
Domingo
Drum and Thunder Suite
Fair Weather
Four Eleven West
From Dream to Dream
From the Bottom Up
Gipsy Jingle-Jangle
Hasaan's Dream
I Remember Clifford
Jam the Avenue
Junction
Just by Myself
Killer Joe
Land of the Blue Veils
Latin Hangover
Little Karin
Mesabi Chant
No Dancin’
Out of the Past
Page 12
Park Avenue Petite
Ray Minor Ray
Reggie of Chester
Sad to Say
Shades of Stein
Slightly Hep
Stablemates
Starfire
Tempo de Waltz
That’s Killer Joe
The Cool One
The Drum Thunder Suite
The Drum Thunder Suite: First Theme: Drum Thunder
The Drum Thunder Suite: Second Theme: Cry a Blue Tear
The Drum Thunder Suite: Third Theme: Harlem's Disciples
Time
Time Speaks
Times Past (This Is for You, John)
Tip Toeing
Voices All
Where Am I
Whisper Not
Yesterday’s Thoughts