Benny Golson, Saxophonist and Jazz Composer, Dies at 95

Mar. 15, 2025

Benny Golson during the Capital Jazz Festival, Knebworth, Hertfordshire, England, July 1982.Photo:Jazz Services/Heritage Images/Getty

Jazz Services/Heritage Images/Getty

Benny Golson, a tenor saxophonist and composer, died on Saturday, Sept. 21, at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.

Jason Franklin, his agent of over 25 years, confirmed the death with theNew York Times.

Additionally, several of Golson’s compositions have been recognized as jazz standards, including “I Remember Clifford,” “Whisper Not,” “Blues March,” “Killer Joe” and “Stablemates.”

Benny Golson during the Atlanta Jazz Festival Day 3 at Piedmont Park in May 2016 in Atlanta.Marcus Ingram/Getty

Marcus Ingram/Getty

In his adolescence, he performed with local musicians who would also become icons within jazz, such as Mr. Coltrane, the drummer Philly Joe Jones and the Heath Brothers. He then played jazz and in marching bands at Howard University. Upon graduation, he became a full-time musician who performed with Hampton Ensemble and Earl Bostic, Tadd Dameron and Dizzy Gillespie’s bands.

Eventually, he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1958. That year, Art Kane photographed  57 jazz musicians at East 126th Street for Esquire magazine. (The photograph became the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentaryA Great Day in Harlem.As well asSteven Spielberg’s 2004 movie,The Terminal, starringTom Hankssearching for Golson — who appeared in the film.)

That same year, he married his wife, Bobbie Hurd, who has survived him. The couple welcomed one daughter, Brielle, who has survived him. He welcomed three sons, Odis, Reggie, and Robert, who predeceased him, with his first wife.

Benny Golson at the North Sea Jazz Festival, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1995.National Jazz Archive/Heritage Images via Getty

National Jazz Archive/Heritage Images via Getty

In 1959, he formed the six-member Jazztet with pianist McCoy Tyner and trombonists Grachan Moncur III and Curtis Fuller. The group disbanded in 1962.

“I wanted to do more than play the tenor sax,” he said, perNYT. “I wanted to write.”

In the following decade, he composed for several hit shows, includingMAS*H, The Mod Squad,and many more. But then he decided to return to New York and eventually reinstated the Jazztet in 1982, co-leading the troupe.

“I wanted to establish myself as a player once more,” he said, perNYT. And Golson did that exactly, and the Jazztet went on to release another six albums, and performed international tours.

Bennie Golson at the Chicago Jazz Festival at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park in Chicago on Sept. 2, 2016.

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In 1996, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and that same year, Howard University established the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award.

He continued to tour and compose music well into his 90s. In 2016 he released his autobiography,Whisper Not. He told his co-author Jim Merod that his illustrious career was due to his ongoing need for creative pursuits, since “being satisfied is a curse,” he said perNYT. “You tend to slow down or come to a stop. Just like having an ego problem. That brings creativity to a halt. The ego only looks outside of itself.”

source: people.com