Stories and Melodies highlight Benny Golson show at Jazz Showcase
August 20, 2017 23:04 Comments [0]Last week, I took my son to his first jazz club. We saw Benny Golson at the Jazz Showcase in the South Loop. He liked it.
Golson has been performing tenor saxophone publicly for decades and has accumulated a number of stories of his interactions with many of the all-time greats - from Dizzy Gillespie to Eric Burdon. He spent much of this evening telling of his days with other musicians, preceding each song with the tale of how that song came to be. For example, he spoke of writing "I remember Clifford" after learning of the death of his friend Clifford Brown; and he talked about playing "Whisper Not" for Dizzy Gillespie and trying to remain cool after Gillespie asked if he could record the song.
At 85, Golson is showing his age. He no longer has the stamina to maintain the long slow notes that many of his melodies demand. But on this night in Chicago's South Loop, he surrounded himself with some excellent musicians (piano, upright bass, and drums), who made up for that with their solos.
And Golson is best known for his songwriting prowess and nearly every song he performed was his own composition. And his melodies are still lovely.
And my son enjoyed his first jazz concert.