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Whisper not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson
- Author: Golson, Benny
- Author: Merod, Jim B
Whisper not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson
- Author: Golson, Benny
- Author: Merod, Jim B
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About
“One of the greatest artists our country has is Benny Golson. He is not only a great musician, but an original and fabulous composer. He is inventive and creative and his work is loved the world over. Benny is a rare, creative genius. All I would like to say is THREE CHEERS for Benny Golson!”-Tony Bennett
“Composer supreme, tenor man supreme, jazz man supreme, good guy supreme: that’s BENNY GOLSON!"-Sonny Rollins
Born during the de facto inaugural era of jazz, saxophonist Benny Golson learned his instrument and the vocabulary of jazz alongside John Coltrane while Golson was still in high school in Philadelphia. Quickly establishing himself as an iconic fixture on the jazz landscape, Golson performed with dozens of jazz greats, from Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmy Heath to Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. An acclaimed composer, Golson also wrote music for Hollywood films and television and composed such memorable jazz standards as “Stablemates,” “Killer Joe,” and “Whisper Not.”
An eloquent account of Golson’s exceptional life-presented episodically rather than chronologically-Whisper Not includes a dazzling collection of anecdotes, memories, experiences, and photographs that recount the successes, the inevitable failures, and the rewards of a life eternally dedicated to jazz.
Contents
- Preface, by Jim Merod
- Introduction
- Part I John Coltrane
- Chapter 1 One of a Kind: John Coltrane
- Chapter 2 John and I Meet Diz and Bird
- Chapter 3 John Becomes a Dynamo
- Part II The 'Hood and Youthful Reckonings
- Chapter 4 Uncle Robert and the Man
- Chapter 5 Two Heroes and a Night at Minton's
- Chapter 6 Early Tragedies and Victories
- Chapter 7 Welfare Days, Hard Times
- Part III Great People
- Chapter 8 No One Else: Bobbie Hurd
- Chapter 9 Moose and Bostic
- Chapter 10 Art Blakey's Neophytes and Tadd Dameron's Luck
- Chapter 11 Further Adventures with Tadd and an Evening with Louis Armstrong
- Chapter 12 The Duel: Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro
- Chapter 13 Wonder and Beauty: Betty Carter and Art Farmer
- Chapter 14 Genius Squared: Jimmy and Percy Heath
- Chapter 15 Unrivaled Aces: Sarah Vaughan and Bill Evans
- Chapter 16 Four "Brothers": Mulgrew Miller, Woody Herman, Henry Brant, and George Russell
- Part IV Hollywood
- Chapter 17 Starting Over
- Chapter 18 Gettin' My Mojo Workin'
- Chapter 19 M*A*S*H
- Chapter 20 Movie Stars Like Jazz, Too
- Part V Amazing Friendships
- Chapter 21 Quincy Jones
- Chapter 22 Sweets and Diz
- Chapter 23 Philly Joe Jones
- Chapter 24 Monk, Max, and Dinah
- Chapter 25 Curtis Fuller and The Jazztet
- Part VI Music and Writing
- Chapter 26 Writing
- Chapter 27 Lessons
- Chapter 28 "Stablemates": My First Recorded Song
- Chapter 29 "Along Came Betty"
- Chapter 30 "I Remember Clifford"
- Chapter 31 The Ballad and "Weight"
- Part VII Icons
- Chapter 32 Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks
- Chapter 33 Duke and Strayhorn
- Chapter 34 Coleman Hawkins
- Chapter 35 Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk
- Chapter 36 Blakey and The Jazz Messengers
- Chapter 37 Kenny Dorham and Lee Morgan
- Chapter 38 Sonny Rollins
- Chapter 39 Great Performances: Oscar Pettiford, Ron Carter, Billy Higgins, Billy Taylor, and Walter Davis, Jr.
- Chapter 40 Charles Mingus, Benny Goodman, Gigi Gryce, and Horace Silver
- Chapter 41 Peggy Lee and Diana Ross
- Chapter 42 Milt "Bags" Jackson, Larry Young, Joe Farrell, and Tony Williams
- Chapter 43 Wynton Kelly and Chick Corea
- Chapter 44 Miles Davis and Geoffrey Keezer
- Chapter 45 Mickey Rooney, Redd Foxx, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Muhammad Ali
- Part VIII Verses and a Coda
- Chapter 46 Notes on Starting Over
- Chapter 47 The Blues
- Chapter 48 Brielle
- Coda: A New Way of Life
- Acknowledgments
- Index
