fbpx

Latin Jazz Summer Program

Amla Latin Jazz Summer Program 2022

The summer was sweltering, but the young people at AMLA played it cool as they learned about Ensemble playing and the incredible musical history of Philadelphia. Latin jazz yesterday and today focused on the song Killer Joe by Benny Golson, a renowned Philadelphia-based musician who wrote many Jazz compositions and worked with artists like Quincy Jones. Students were new to the instruments they played this summer. They engaged in new dynamics of Ensemble playing and had the opportunity to record in a professional studio. Please enjoy the recordings produced at the Doff & Tulip Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

Programa de verano de jazz latino Amla 2022

El verano fue sofocante, pero los jóvenes de AMLA jugaron genial mientras aprendían sobre tocar en Ensemble y la increíble historia musical de Filadelfia. El jazz latino de ayer y de hoy se centró en la canción Killer Joe de Benny Golson, un reconocido músico radicado en Filadelfia que escribió muchas composiciones de Jazz y trabajó con artistas como Quincy Jones. Los estudiantes eran nuevos en los instrumentos que tocaron este verano. Se involucraron en nuevas dinámicas de tocar en Ensemble y tuvieron la oportunidad de grabar en un estudio profesional. Disfrute de las grabaciones producidas en Doff & Tulip Studio en Filadelfia, Pensilvania.

 

Students

Lianni Morales Soto

Zeiden Ramos

Lucia Pena Morales

Luis Romero Hernandez

Lian Romero Hernandez

Zahir Cordero

Sameya Young

Yazmeen Young

Stephen Parker Jr.

Anthony Colón

Juan Pagan

 

 

While in high school in Philadelphia, Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and Red Rodney. After graduating from Howard University, Golson joined Bull Moose Jackson’s rhythm and blues band; Tadd Dameron, whom Golson came to consider the most important influence on his writing, was Jackson’s pianist at the time.[1]

From 1953 to 1959, Golson played with Dameron’s band and then with the bands of Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers,[1] with whom he recorded the classic Moanin’ in 1958.[3]

Golson was working with the Lionel Hampton band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1956 when he learned that Clifford Brown, a noted and well-liked jazz trumpeter who had done a stint with him in Dameron’s band,[4] had died in a car accident. Golson was so moved by the event that he composed the threnody “I Remember Clifford”, as a tribute to a fellow musician and friend.

In addition to “I Remember Clifford”, many of Golson’s other compositions have become jazz standards. Songs such as “Stablemates”, “Killer Joe”, “Whisper Not”, “Along Came Betty”, and “Are You Real?”, have been performed and recorded numerous times by many musicians.[5]

Golson at “Kimball’s” Jazz club, San Francisco, with the Jazztet, July 21, 1985.

From 1959 to 1962, Golson co-led the Jazztet with Art Farmer.[1] Golson then left jazz to concentrate on studio and orchestral work for 12 years.[1] During this time he composed music for such television shows as Mannix, Ironside, Room 222, M*A*S*H, The Partridge Family and Mission: Impossible. He also formulated and conducted arrangements to various recordings, such as Eric Is Here, a 1967 album by Eric Burdon, which features five of Golson’s arrangements, conducted by Golson.[6]

During the mid-1970s, Golson returned to jazz playing and recording. Critic Scott Yannow of AllMusic wrote that Golson’s sax style underwent a major shift with his performing comeback, resembling avant-garde Archie Shepp more than the swing-era Don Byas influence of Golson’s youth.[7] In 1982, Golson re-organized the Jazztet.[8]

In 1996, Golson received the NEA Jazz Masters Award of the National Endowment for the Arts.[9]

In 1999, Golson was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.[10]

Golson made a cameo appearance in the 2004 movie The Terminal, related to his appearance in “A Great Day in Harlem”, a group photograph of prominent jazz musicians. Main character Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) travels to the US from Europe to obtain Golson’s signature; Golson was one of seven musicians then surviving from the photo, the others being Johnny Griffin (died 2008), Eddie Locke (died 2009), Hank Jones (died 2010), Marian McPartland (died 2013), Horace Silver (died 2014), and Sonny Rollins. Golson’s song “Something in B Flat” (from the album Benny Golson’s New York Scene) can be heard during a scene where Viktor is painting and redecorating part of an airport terminal; in a later scene, Golson’s band performs “Killer Joe”.[11]

In October 2007, Golson received the Mellon Living Legend Legacy Award,[9] presented by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center. Additionally, during the same month, he won the University of Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award at the university’s 37th Annual Jazz Concert in the Carnegie Music Hall.[12]

In November 2009, Golson was inducted into the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame, during a performance at the University of Pittsburgh’s annual jazz seminar and concert.[citation needed]

The Howard University Jazz Studies program created a prestigious award in his honor called the “Benny Golson Jazz Master Award” in 1996. Many distinguished jazz artists have received this award.[13]

 

Text and image from Wikipedia

 

Menu