Press

Media Reviews

Nat Hentoff, Author/Columnist, The New York Times

"In my experience of some thirty years of writing about and recording musicians, BENNY GOLSON stands out as a man whose musical skills and capacities are extraordinarily wide-ranging. He is consistently resourceful in terms of creativity, as well as as being a thorough professional. His conscientiousness, the high standards he always sets for himself, and his total reliability are qualities that account for the prominence he has attained - along with, of course, his prodigious musicianship as a composer, arranger and performer. Benny Golson continually impresses me with the freshness of his musical conceptions. But I am never surprised that they always work exactly as he says they will, because they always do."


John S Wilson, Jazz Critic, The New York Times

"I have known Benny Golson as one of the most complete musicians of the past twenty-five years. He is a composer with an unusually brilliant melodic sense."


Gene Reynolds, Co-Producer, M*A*S*H serie

" Benny, I wish to thank you for the great work you are doing for us weekly on M*A*S*H. We appreciate the fact that you are a musician with whom we can communicate; that you take great care in understanding the material and expressing the theme and ideas musically; and ultimately that you have the talent and imagination to deliver."


Roy Eaton, Vice President, Benton & Bowles, Inc

"If I were to compile a VIP list among composer-arrangers Benny Golson would certainly be among the top few for outstanding Versatility, Imagination and Professionalism."


Reed Springer, Director/Producer

"Benny is one of the most enthusiastic and creative composers I know - always open to suggestions, totally committed to quality, surrounded with tremendous talent and never satisfied until he feels he has done the job the agency requested."


Bob McCullough, The Boston Globe

"Virtually every solo by Golson is a textbook tour de force".


Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times, September 1995

"Let me say what a pleasure it is to hear Grand Master Golson back in the fray. Here Golson lays down -with the collusion of a sterling trio - five mighty jam-length tracks"


John Fordham, The Guardian, January 14, 1994

"Saxophonist and composer Benny Golson remains one of the most attractive chameleons of improvisation".


Alex Anderson, Jazziz, November 1995

"...superb...Golson offers soul and warmth as well as considerable technique, leaving no doubt that he is indeed tenor sax royalty".


Owen McNally, Hartford Courant, May 11, 1995

"When Golson isn't soloing, pianist Mulgrew Miller and his sidekicks stretch out beautifully in the piano tiro format. But the real treasure is the Golson gold. It's never less than 24 karats whether he's finding new things to say about "Sweet and Lovely" or brushing in new colors and shapes in his own pieces."


Jack Bowers, Cadence

"In these days of smoothly burnished sound-alike tenor saxophonists, there aren't many whose uniquely personal approach sets them apart from and above their peers. Benny Golson is one such player....the music ....is superb throughout."


Frank-John Hadley, Jazziz

"Consider Benny Golson...he's a world class composer and arranger, and an outstanding ...tenor-sax player whose engine still runs strong".


George Fendel, Jazzscene

"Benny Golson's ....sound is rich and thick, unique and instantly identifiable through decades of jazz prominence. Golson's contributions to the jazz art encompass superb performance, composition and arranging skills. He has earned the title of living jazz legend. ****1/2 stars."


David Rosenthal

"In a sense, artists like Benny Golson may represent what modern jazz would have been had the bebop revolution not taken place under the sign of radical innovation."


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Articles

> Recording Academy News
2/09/2005
Music legends Jon Hendricks and Benny Golson stepped like soldiers during a martial performance of Golson's jazz classic "Blues March," pianist and hard-bop pioneer Horace Silver beamed proudly as an exceptional high school ensemble interpreted some of his best-loved classics, and music lovers offered a reverent moment of silence for two recently departed friends....

> Kansas City Star
12/13/2004
Benny Golson is the Noah Webster of jazz. His vocabulary is unsurpassed and few if any have contributed more to the lexicon. Literally and musically, he commands vast knowledge — whether as saxophonist, composer, arranger, or raconteur....

> Kansas City Star
12/09/2004
Creativity,” Golson says, “demands that you move on.”Golson has been in creative motion since he was 9, when he became “a very serious piano student,” playing light classical music for Sunday afternoon fashion shows in his native Philadelphia. But his interests switched abruptly to jazz at 14 when he heard Lionel Hampton's big band.....

> Indianapolis Star
12/01/2004
Young Benny Golson rubbed shoulders with some jazz immortals one day in 1958, when photographer Art Kane took a group portrait of more than 50 musicians on the steps of a Harlem brownstone......

> Mosaic Records Brochure
8/2004
Navigators use triangulation to find location – you learn the position of known objects, find the point where lines drawn from each point intersect, and use that information to derive the position of the target. Well, you can use the same method to locate jazz in the early 1960s. It rests squarely at the intersection of the Art Farmer-Benny

> North
7/14/2004
Benny Golson refuses to talk about his childhood. According to him, it's a long, boring and exhausted story that no one wants to hear anymore. Benny Golson refuses to talk about musicians and drug abuse. He gets tired of everyone always wanting to talk about jazz musicians and their personal problems. Benny Golson doesn't want to talk about anything, besides the music of course....

> Denver Post
1/16/2004
Saxophonist Benny Golson didn't believe that Steven Spielberg really wanted him to appear in a Tom Hanks film he was directing.
" I was in Europe. My office called and said that he (Spielberg) wanted to know if I was interested," said Golson, who plays Mount Vernon Country Club on Thursday.
"I initially told them (his office) no. "This jazz journeyman turned down Hollywood's best-known director? Well, not exactly....