Benny Golson Appears in new Speilberg film

[Lois Gilbert]

Tenor Saxophonist Benny Golson's New CD, Terminal 1, Features New Music
Inspired by Spielberg Film in Which Golson Makes An Appearance



In The Terminal, a new film by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks is in search of
Benny Golson to get his autograph for a historic jazz photo.

It's going to be a busy summer for tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. On June 22, he will release on the Concord Records label, Terminal 1, new music inspired by a Steven Spielberg film, "The Terminal." The DreamWorks SKG film, starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, and a cameo appearance by Golson, premieres in theaters on June 18. Also of note, in August, Mosaic Records is set to release a 7-CD boxed set compiling his early recordings with Art Farmer, entitled The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer Benny Golson Jazztet Sessions.

Terminal 1 is Golson's homage to director Spielberg, a long-time jazz fan, who summoned the saxophonist to Montreal in February to perform a small speaking role and play his instrument in the film. Spurred by an all-star quintet (Eddie Henderson, trumpet; Mike LeDonne, piano; Buster Williams, bass; Carl Allen, drums), Golson plays with undiminished imagination and energy. On the title track, as always, he transmutes the heady experience into his own artistic expression.

³The piece symbolizes the comings and goings of people in all airports around the world,² Golson says. ³Crowds of people within, and all scenarios -- locations, emotions -- take place there. The drums represent the crowds of people, and seem to have a free, loose reign during the opening strains and the playing of the melody, which accompanies the crowd (drums) here, and also during the first chorus of each solo. You'll notice that the mood fluctuates between a laid back pulse to a pressing straight ahead 4/4 feeling, indicating that nothing is ever exactly the same in any airport. The piece ends with the diminishing sound of the drums -- airport crowd murmur, if you will --as we slowly pull away pursuing the clouds in mid heaven."

Golson¹s other new offerings are "Caribbean Drifting," an effervescent line with a feeling akin to Jamaican Mento folk music, and "Our Last Goodbye," the latest in a distinguished line of bittersweet Golson ballads.

He also finds fresh ways to approach three of his classic refrains. In "The Terminal," he performs "Killer Joe," which, as he puts it, ³seems to have taken on a life all its own² since he first played it on Meet The Jazztet (1960). "I think the thing that helped it catch on is its distinctive and unrelenting beat, and the sound of the muted trumpet which is so often associated with night life in the city," Golson continues. "I¹ve heard many performers request a ŒKiller Joe beat' for certain songs. Of course, I¹m quite delighted, because I had no idea not only that the tune would become memorable, but also legendary!²

Also reprised from Meet The Jazztet is the poignant "Park Avenue Petite," featuring a ravishing statement by Eddie Henderson on muted trumpet and a romantic Golson turn. This version of ³Blues March,² which Golson famously debuted in 1958 on Art Blakey¹s Moanin¹, differs from others in that the solos maintain the chords of the melody instead of transitioning to the straight blues.

Golson stamps his identity on a trio of jazz standards from his early years. He records for the first time "Sweet Georgia Brown," composed by Maceo Pinkard in 1925. "This was the tune that seemed to prove a musician¹s mettle back in Philadelphia when so many of us were starting out,² he recalls. ³During the first half of the melody I use a battery of substitute chords accompanied by a 2/4 beat; all remaining sections are straight-ahead 4/4 with no alterations." Nor has Golson previously documented ³Cherry,² a popular ditty written in 1928 by the legendary arranger Don Redman; his soulful solo evokes the rent parties and street life on Page Street in North Philadelphia when Golson was a boy. And Golson challenges himself by changing keys on Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way," which he ranks with Thelonious Monk¹s ³Round Midnight² as ³one of the most beautiful tunes in jazz."

Golson demonstrates that, whether recontextualizing the past or grappling with the present, he continues to be emblematic of the spirit of adventure that drives jazz music. "Though the future will always have an indistinguishable face," Golson states, ³many of those who engage in jazz as performers and writers try creatively and indefatigably to give it one of their own making by coming into tandem with time, boldly making it their confederate while it moves unremittingly forward, not backing up for mistakes, regrets, or failures."

Out of Philadelphia, PA, Benny Golson developed his compositional identity on jobs with master bop composer Tadd Dameron and rhythm-and-blues bands led by the likes of Tiny Grimes, Bull Moose Jackson and Earl Bostic. In 1955, James Moody recorded "Blue Walk" on a septet session for Prestige, and later that year, the Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane, his close Philly chum, recorded "Stablemates." That was the first of numerous Golson tunes -- to name a few, "Killer Joe," "Blues March," "I Remember Clifford," "Whisper Not" and "Along Came Betty" -- that would become essential signposts of modern jazz.

In the ensuing half-century, Golson has recorded over 30 albums under his own name for recording companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan and another dozen with the Jazztet, a sextet he co-founded in 1960 with flugelhornist Art Farmer. He has side-manned with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, and has composed and arranged music for artists as diverse as Itzhak Perlman, Quincy Jones, Shirley Horn, Diana Ross, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Dusty Springfield, Carmen McRae, Peggy Lee, and Lou Rawls. During the Œ60s and Œ70s, he broached the mainstream, writing scores for popular TV shows, such as M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible, Mod Squad, Room 222, and The Partridge Family, for more than a few made-for-TV movies, and a host of national radio and television spots for some of the major advertising agencies in the country. Recently of note, Golson co-wrote with Bill Cosby "Monk's Hat," the theme from the 1996 TV show, Cosby.