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He acknowledges that his pianistic skills and knowledge of theory gave him a head start, even before he fully understood how to apply his knowledge to the saxophone, to which he initially sought to apply the tonal values exemplified by Byas, Lucky Thompson and Coleman Hawkins. "Benny could read the music and he had a good sound," Heath, 91, said. "He was ready to enter the world with what he did, with a lot of determination- and his development was obvious. He's a very lyrical tenor player who found his voice and established a style." Proximity to bebop poet Tadd Dameron during their mutual tenure with Jackson facilitated Golson's musical vocabulary building. "It amazed me what Tadd could do with a paucity of musicians," Golson said. "I made it a point to [learn] everything that each instrument is capable of, and the sound you get when you blend them in combination with the other instruments. What does the hi-hat mean? What does the ride cymbal mean? .. . What does it mean when you're playing in the middle of the piano' What about the glassy sound in the upper part of the piano? The mutes. Louis Armstrong never played any mute but the straight mute. Dizzy Gillespie used a cup mute. Miles Davis used a Harmon mute. In the Jazztet, sometimes I'd tell [trumpeter] Art Farmer to use a little hat, which looked like a derby, which changes the sound.