Composer, arranger, lyricist, producer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson was born on January 25, 1929. Aside from his memorable musical performances, Golson composed eight pieces that have become standards in the jazz repertoire. Among his famous compositions are "Killer Joe," "I Remember Clifford," "Blues March," "Stablemates" and "Five Spot After Dark."

Golson began playing the piano at age 9 and started on saxophone at 14. While attending Franklin High School in Philadelphia, he played with John Coltrane, Percy and Jimmy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, Red Rodney and Red Garland before matriculating at Howard University in Washington, D.C. During the 1950s Benny Golson came to prominence as a sideman in groups led by Tadd Dameron, Art Blakey, Johnny Hodges, Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, but was often noted more as a writer more than as a performer. Dameron had a great influence on Golson’s writing. It was while playing with Hampton at the Apollo Theater in Harlem that Golson learned of trumpeter Clifford Brown’s untimely death in an automobile accident and penned "I Remember Clifford" in his honor.

Between 1959 and 1962 Benny Golson co-lead the Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer before concentrating all of his efforts on composing and arranging for more than a decade. During that time, he contributed music to the television shows “Mannix,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Ironside,” “The Partridge Family” and “M*A*S*H*.” In the mid-1970s Golson returned to playing live on a regular basis and re-formed the Jazztet in 1982.

Among the many accolades he received, Benny Golson was named a NEA Jazz Master in 1996 and was granted an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in 1999. Howard University created a prestigious award in his honor, and he was named to the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame in 2009. Golson passed away in September 2024.

Here is a link to a live recording of Benny Golson playing "Killer Joe:"

"KILLER JOE"