NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Jazz great Benny Golson, a tenor saxophonist and composer of standards such as 鈥淜iller Joe鈥� and 鈥淎long Came Betty," has died. He was 95.
Golson died Saturday at his home in Manhattan after a short illness, said Golson鈥檚 longtime agent, Jason Franklin.
Over his seven-decade musical career, Golson worked with some of the biggest luminaries in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton and John Coltrane. He built much of his reputation not as a performer but from his compositions, which also included written in 1956 after trumpeter Clifford Brown, a friend, died in a car crash at age 25.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Golson began learning the piano at age 9 and switched to the saxophone at age 14. He was still in high school when he started performing with other local musicians, including Coltrane, a childhood friend.
Golson began writing and arranging music while attending Howard University.
After stints in Gillespie鈥檚 big band and in drummer Art Blakey鈥檚 Jazz Messengers, Golson co-founded The Jazztet in 1959 with flugelhorn master Art Farmer.
The Jazztet disbanded in 1962, and Golson moved on to writing music for movies and for television shows such as 鈥淢annix,鈥� 鈥淢-A-S-H鈥� and 鈥淢ission: Impossible.鈥� He also arranged music for performers including Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls and Dusty Springfield.
After a hiatus of more than a dozen years, Golson resumed playing the saxophone in the mid-1970s and launched a new version of the Jazztet with Farmer in 1982. He continued performing and writing music into his 90s.
He published 鈥淲hisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson鈥� in 2016.
Franklin, who worked with Golson for 25 years, said Golson stopped performing when COVID-19 shut down music venues in 2020 but continued working on projects, such as giving interviews for a forthcoming documentary, 鈥淏enny Golson: Looking Beyond The Horizon.鈥�
Franklin said Golson saw a rough cut of the film a few weeks ago and loved it. 鈥淗e was so happy he got to see it,鈥� he said.
Golson released dozens of albums as a solo artist and as a member of various ensembles.
He appeared as himself in the 2004 Steven Spielberg movie 鈥淭he Terminal,鈥� in which the main character, played by Tom Hanks, travels to New York from a fictional Eastern European country to obtain Golson's autograph, which he needs to complete a collection of signatures of all of the 58 jazz musicians who assembled for the famous 1958 group photo 鈥淎 Great Day in Harlem.鈥�
Actor and musician Steve Martin recalled the film scene in on Sunday and said, 鈥淭hanks for all of the great music.鈥�
With Golson's death, Sonny Rollins is the last living subject of the photo who was an adult when it was taken.
Golson's survivors include his wife, Bobbie Golson, daughter Brielle Golson and several grandchildren. Three sons preceded him in death.
Karen Matthews, The Associated Press
