Safe passage to the great saxophonist, composer, and gentleman Benny Golson, who has moved to the next realm after a highly consequential 95 years on this planet. Truly jazz royalty, he would be a proverbial hall-of-famer just on the strength of his powerful tenor saxophone mastery OR his intricate writing and arranging, and the full package is pretty overwhelming. Because he is associated with the hard bop movement (being the saxophonist on what is debatably Art Blakey’s best-known album before going on to form the Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer) folks are often taken aback when they listen closely and realize how amidst the blues and bebop fluency, his sound was both highly modern and totally distinctive. I did not know Maestro Golson personally, so I’ll let those who did speak to his humanity, but through the decades of my own jazz involvement I have heard only glowing words about that. 

It’s tempting to just focus on the period between roughly 1957-1962 as there are dozens of indispensable recordings by Golson as a leader, with the Jazztet, and as a tune-contributing sideman with Dizzy Gillespie, “Philly” Joe Jones, Ernie Henry, Blue Mitchell, Milt Jackson, Curtis Fuller, Lee Morgan, and Quincy Jones, and others. What’s striking, though, is how well his sometimes less-heralded later work stands the test of time and demonstrates his enduring brilliance and ongoing development. So, in chronological order, here we go:

1 ) “Step Lightly” from New York Scene (1957)

I don’t know how to identify the moment when Benny Golson “arrived” but his first album as a bandleader is not a bad place to start, particularly given that a) the Tadd Dameron live recordings from 1953 featuring Benny and Clifford Brown are out of print and b) this also marks the first recording to feature solos by both Benny and Art Farmer, well before the formation of the Jazztet. The tune had been recorded a year and a half prior by Brown and Max Roach with Sonny Rollins, though here we get extra written material here, including a gorgeous shout chorus. We also get to enjoy the nuanced accompaniment of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Charli Persip, the former two also getting solos. I could have made a whole list of hard-swinging, primarily minor key hard bop performances from classics like “Whisper Not” and “Five Spot After Dark” to comparatively obscure compositions like “Tippin’ On Thru” and “Bob Hurd’s Blues.”  

2 ) “Are You Real” from Moanin’ by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1958)

Indulge me in a baseball analogy here. Imagine you hit a home run in a World Series game – regardless of any other accomplishments/longer-term track record, this would be a moment that would confer pride and admiration on anybody. Now imagine that not only was that just one among countless highlights in your career, BUT that it was actually your third-most admired accomplishment from that game alone. So it goes with recording one of one’s own tunes with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers that just happens to be on the same album as the original recordings of “Blues March” and “Along Came Betty.” Wow. Benny, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt, and Blakey himself all get their turns as soloists. IIt’s also fun to contrast this with Benny’s own version recorded a couple weeks later with Merritt, “Philly” Joe Jones, Barry Harris, and future Messenger and Jazztet member Curtis Fuller.  

3 ) “Killer Joe” from Meet the Jazztet by Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet (1960)

If there is a subpar early-60s Jazztet record, it has been buried in some archive, because the actual records are consistently superb. As such, I’ll cut myself some slack for not going for a “deep cut” here and instead focusing on one of the true benchmarks of the early ‘60s hard bop movement, “Killer Joe.” Honestly, if the whole track was nothing more than Benny’s spoken introduction up front, it would still be pretty great. But once Lex Humphries, Addison Farmer, and then little-known Philadelphia pianist McCoy Tyner start grooving, it’s time for us to all levitate from the buoyancy. Farmer, Golson, Curtis Fuller, and Tyner each get half-chorus solos that leave us wanting more in the best way possible.

4 ) “Time” from Take a Number from 1 to 10 (1961)

The Benny Golson Orchestra is actually not that big here in terms of sheer personnel, but you wouldn’t know it from the extraordinary richness of maestro Golson’s orchestration – given the renown he experienced later for his large ensemble writing, I find the elegance and (with apologies for using a seemingly-mundane term) efficiency of his writing throughout this album as fascinating as it is gorgeous. And he plays a characteristically inventive and swinging solo here, followed by a quick turn by special guest Art Farmer.

5 ) “Dear Kathy” from Turning Point (1962)

Is it heresy to include a ballad performance that isn’t one of his many renditions of the iconic “I Remember Clifford?” I don’t know, but his subtlety, emotion, and melodic ingenuity on this one are truly remarkable. The subtle accompaniment is courtesy of the Wynton Kelly trio (with Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb) and Wynton gets a characteristically lyrical solo in of his own.

6 ) “Stablemates” from Three Little Words (1965)

This track comes from a live recording at Ronnie Scott’s in London and finds Golson accompanied by an entirely-British rhythm section (though elsewhere on the album Billy Hart appears on drums). With no disrespect to Stan Tracey, Rick Laird, or Ronnie Stephenson, this is all about Benny. On one of his best-loved tunes, dating back to Miles Davis’s first recording of it ten years prior, Benny burns through the challenging chord progression. And then he burns some more. If you want to hear some truly fierce tenor work, dig in and enjoy.

7 ) “Walkin’ and Stalkin’” from Killer Joe (1977)

Is it heresy to include a disco-era funk tune when so many hard bop classics didn’t make it on to the list? Even if so, and especially given his near-hiatus as a player from the mid-60s through much of the ‘70s, it is illuminating to hear his ease in this milieu both as a writer and as a funky soloist (here on soprano saxophone) atop a rhythm section of funky studio aces featuring Ray Parker Jr., Stanley Clarke, and James Gadson.

8 ) “Back to the City” from Back to the City by Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet (1986)

The Jazztet was underrated in its prime and remained so in its 1980s reunion period where Benny and Art Farmer brought Curtis Fuller back into the fold and assembled this wonderful rhythm section of Mickey Tucker, Ray Drummond (a.k.a. Bulldog), and Marvin “Smitty” Smith. Already in his late ‘50s by this point, Benny demonstrates not only copious fire on this live track, but effortless deployment of the sort of modern vocabulary one typically associates with his old pal John Coltrane yet which is totally organic to his own conception.  

9 ) “Mississippi Windows” from That’s Funky (1994)

There had to be a slow blues in here somewhere, and this one with the frontline of Benny and Nat Adderley is appropriately nasty. Bulldog and Smitty are back and if Benny weren’t such a badass, his thunder would be in danger of being stolen by pianist Monty Alexander.  

10 ) “Terminal 1” from Terminal 1 (2004)

I’ll admit that I never saw this Tom Hanks movie in which Benny appears as himself. The corresponding album is amazing, though, showing an undiminished Maestro Golson mostly playing authoritative renditions of BG classics alongside Eddie Henderson, Mike LeDonne, Buster Williams, and Carl Allen. This track, meanwhile, vascilates between esoteric rhythms and impeccable swing, demonstrating both his (and his band’s) mastery of both and his capacity as a composer and arranger to pull seemingly disparate parts together into a coherent whole.