Revel in the Presence of Benny Golson
For the 31st year the Office for the Arts will collaborate with the Harvard Jazz Bands to honor distinguished artists in jazz. In the spring semester composer/saxophonist Benny Golson will be celebrated with “Along Came Benny” (an artist residency named after his famed composition “Along Came Betty”).
Golson first visited Harvard in January, when he rehearsed with undergraduates in the Monday and Sunday Jazz Bands, and visited with students in the Department of Music to advise them on the creation of new compositions.
In April, Golson will return to Harvard. In addition to being feted by jazz journalists, as well as by faculty, staff, and students from area schools and universities including Harvard, Berklee College of Music, and New England Conservatory, he will meet with high school students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and journalist Fellows at the Nieman Foundation. Golson will meet again with students in the Music Department to comment on their final compositions. On Thursday, April 17, he will discuss his career at a Learning From Performers event at 3:30 pm, in the New College Theatre, 10-12 Holyoke Street. The event is free and open to the public.
For a special matinee concert on Saturday, April 19, at 4 pm in Sanders Theatre, Golson will be joined by guest pianist Mulgrew Miller and the Harvard Jazz Bands.
For more than 50 years, Golson has made scores of recordings and composed and arranged for such artists as Count Basie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie. A prolific and renowned composer, he has written such widely-known standards for the jazz repertoire as “Killer Joe” (popularized in a hit recording by Quincy Jones), “I Remember Clifford,” (set to choreography in 1995 by Twyla Tharp and performed by her company), “Stablemates,” “Whisper Not,” “Blues March,” “Five Spot After Dark,” and “Are you Real?”
“During the transitional period of the late 1950s and early1960s,” says Director of Bands Tom Everett, “Benny produced an oeuvre of jazz compositions that masterfully bridged the lyrical quality and structure of the traditional popular American song, with the harmonic content that challenged, and was revered by, the improvising musician. No other individual produced a body of work during that time that has become such a significant part of the jazz repertoire.”
Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Golson played in the bands of Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Earl Bostic. His also served as music director with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and co-led Jazztet with flugel hornist Art Farmer; both ensembles were milestones of the late hard bop period. As a performer, “Benny’s tenor playing is often overlooked,” says Tom Everett, “whether because it is overshadowed by his acclaimed writing talent or his admiration for the earlier tenor giant Ben Webster (versus the more often emulated John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins). Benny forged his own warm mellow identifiable sound. He has maintained a remarkably high and diverse standard of creativity.”
Golson’s honors are many. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1995 and received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 1996. He has received honorary doctorates Berklee College of Music and William Patterson College. In 1999 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his performance of “Body and Soul” on his CD Tenor Legacy. Golson’s prolific writing career also includes scores for hit TV series and films, including “M*A*S*H,” “Mannix,” “Mission Impossible,” and “Mod Squad.”
Miller has been cited by the venerable Hank Jones (2005 Harvard Jazz Artist) as one of his favorite pianists. With over 400 recordings as a leader and sideman, Miller is, according to critics, perhaps the leading pianist of his generation. Born and raised in Mississippi, he arrived in New York in 1977 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He is a member of the Contemporary Piano Ensemble— four pianists performing on four grand pianos with a rhythm section—and tours with his own trio, and his quintet Wingspan. His first live recording Live at Yoshi’s was issued in 2004.
Jazz programs at Harvard University were initiated in 1971 by Tom Everett and have developed in conjunction with the Office for the Art at Harvard since 1976. Artists such as Eddie Palmieri, Jim Hall, Jon Hendricks, Joe Lovano, Benny Carter, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson, Bill Evans, Randy Weston, and Carla Bley have participated. For more information, contact Tom Everett (617.496.BAND) or OFA Director of Programs Cathy McCormick (617.495.8676).
