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Benny Golson obituary

Tenor saxophonist whose compositions were valued for their harmonic challenge and melodic grace

Early masters such as the trumpeter Red Allen and the drummer Zutty Singleton were mingling with the swing-era heroes Count Basie, Lester Young and Gene Krupa, and with postwar beboppers such as Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. While Coltrane embarked on a fully professional career with the bands of Gillespie and Johnny Hodges, Golson enrolled at Howard University in Washington DC, although soon he too was on the road, recruited by the popular R&B singer and saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson. Even during Golson’s long absence in Hollywood, his compositions continued to be played and studied by fellow jazz musicians who valued their special combination of ingenious harmonic challenge and rare melodic grace, blithe but never bland, as a platform for improvisation.

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