Benny Golson – The New York Recordings 1957 (2021)

01 – Moten’s Swing
02 – Out of the Past
03 – Something in B Flat
04 – Out of Nowhere
05 – Reunion
06 – Whisper Not
07 – Groovin’ High
08 – Step Lightly
09 – Venetian Breeze
10 – Autumn Leaves
11 – Hymn to the Orient
12 – Just by Myself
13 – Blues It
14 – Donna Lee
15 – Namely You
16 – Blues on Down
17 – Quicksilver
18 – You’re Mine You
19 – Capri
20 – Stella by Starlight
21 – B.G.’s Holiday
22 – Ornithology
23 – If I Should Lose You
24 – Walkin’ 

Alto Saxophone – Gigi Gryce
Baritone Saxophone – Sahib Shihab
Bass – Paul Chambers
Drums – Charles Persip
French Horn – Julius Watkins 
Piano – Wynton Kelly
Tenor Saxophone – Benny Golson
Trombone – James Cleveland
Trumpet – Art Farmer

Benny Golson's debut as a leader was recorded at a time when he was better known as a composer than a tenor saxophonist. This album, reissued during the CD era with "B.G.'s Holiday" added to the original LP program as a bonus track, features Golson in a quintet with fellow future Jazztet co-leader Art Farmer on trumpet, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Charlie Persip on five selections, and with the same group plus four horns on three other songs. The set is most significant for including an early version of Golson's "Whisper Not" (which soon became a jazz standard) along with "Step Lightly," as well as for the leader's inventive and swinging arrangements; plus, there are some excellent solos from Golson and Farmer. Overall, this underrated gem served as a strong start to Benny Golson's influential solo career. ---Scott Yanow, allmusic.com

Benny Golson was just 17 when he fell under the spell of composer/arranger Tadd Damerons writing. Tadds music really ignited the spark for me, he said. After hearing things like Our Delight and Lady Bird, I had more of a definite goal. I wanted to do more than play tenor sax. I wanted to write.

By 28 he was playing and writing for the Dizzy Gillespie band. Most arrangers in those days had an adequate facility on one instrument or another, but those who excelled as writers and instrumentalists were very few. Benny was one of them. Since then, his skills as a writer have been so acclaimed that sometimes critics forget that he was also a very swinging tenor man, as these 1957-1958 recordings, his first as a leader, demonstrate: a fusion of thinking and blowing that represents modern jazz at its skillful, provocative, imaginative best. ---freshsoundrecords.com

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