Benny Golson - Golden Standards, Vol. 1 (2024) [Hi-Res]

“In my experience of some thirty years of writing about and recording musicians, Benny Golson stands out as a man whose musical skills and capacities are extraordinarily wide-ranging. He is consistently resourceful in terms of creativity, as well as being a thorough professional. His conscientiousness, the high standards he always sets for himself, and his total reliability are qualities that account for the prominence he has attained – along with, of course, his prodigious musicianship as a composer, arranger and performer. Benny Golson continually impresses me with the freshness of his musical conceptions. But I am never surprised that they always work exactly as he says they will, because they always do.” – John S Wilson, Jazz Critic, The New York Times

At the peak of his musical powers, Benny Golson recorded a number of projects for Arkadia Records. Among those recording sessions, he performed 17 of his original compositions, including his most famous songs, many of which became Jazz Standards. This commemorative release presents a retrospective of his historic career starting 70 years ago when he joined the Tad Dameron band in 1953, then forming The Jazztet with Art Farmer in 1959.

Inspired by his friend, noted trumpeter Clifford Brown, who died in a car accident in 1956 at the age of 25, he wrote one of his most famous songs, I Remember Clifford, followed by numerous standards including Stablemates, Killer Joe, Blues March, Whisper Not, Along Came Betty and Are You Real?, all of which are included in this project