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CRLS NEWS
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CRLS News Jazz Legend Benny Golson visits CRLS He practiced with John Coltrane. He performed with Duke Ellington. He composed for some of the top television shows of all time. Thursday [April 17, 2008] Jazz legend Benny Golson came to Cambridge Rindge & Latin School to talk with students about jazz music, life's lessons, and the importance of practice and commitment. "I started [playing the saxophone] as a teenager," he told the 60 students who gathered in the Andrea N. Harvey Music Room to meet and hear from a legend. "I'm still working at it. It never ends."
Golson visited CRLS as part of Harvard University's artists in residence program. In addition to being feted by jazz journalists, and faculty, staff, and students from Harvard, Berklee College of Music, and New England Conservatory, he met with high school students at CRLS, and~journalist Fellows at the Nieman Foundation. Mr. Golson encouraged students to continue to learn, to practice, and to listen, throughout their lives. "We learn from each other, just as we're doing now,” he told the students. "It is these types of events that inspire our students," said CRLS Principal Chris Saheed. "Learning opportunities like these are special. When artists, authors, doctors, research scientists... when people from all fields come and talk with students, and these talks happen quite often, they impact student learning in a very meaningful way. They help to make CRLS a special place."
For more than fifty 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 early 1960s,” 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.” Golson’s prolific writing career also includes scores for hit TV series and films, including “M*A*S*H,” the theme of Bill Cosby’s last show, “Mannix,” “Mission Impossible,” “Mod Squad,” “Room 222,” The Academy Awards, and specials for ABC, CBS and NBC networks, as well as the BBC. He has also written national radio and television spots for major American advertising agencies. 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”. *Information about Mr. Golson, including Mr. Everett's quotes, was provided by Harvard University's Office of Community Affairs. |
