Whisper Not
Benny Golson and Jim Merod
335 Pages
ISBN: 9781439913338
Temple University Press
2016

Philadelphia has always been a cradle for outstanding jazz talent, though when it comes to durability surely none can match Benny Golson, who began playing seventy years ago. At 87, Golson—an NEA Jazz Master—still leads small ensembles and fronts big bands who play his charts. "Killer Joe," "I Remember Clifford," "Stablemates," "Whisper Not" and "Along Came Betty" are bona fide jazz standards that have cemented the tenor saxophonist's place in the jazz pantheon. Golson continues to make his mark in the studio too, as the originals on his most recent outing Horizon Ahead (OA2 Records, 2016) demonstrate. Yet as this autobiography co-written by Jim Merod underlines, Golson's significance and legacy go far beyond a handful of standards that remain basic currency for straight-ahead jazz bands the world over.

Merod, the man behind the BluePort Jazz label and author of The Political Responsibility of the Critic (Cornell University Press, 1987), brings an erudite though not overly scholarly touch to Golson's tales, while the liberal sprinkling of literary references are just the stock in trade of a Professor of Literature and Humanities. Avoiding the typical chronology of many jazz autobiographies, the narrative of Whisper Not instead jumps back and forth in time, with Golson reflecting on the main signposts in his career, and the key individuals who shaped his music and life and vice versa.

Any readers looking for salacious detail will be disappointed, as apart from a passing admission of serial infidelities during his first marriage—"I was an adulterer of the highest order"—Golson, a dedicated family man, has led a drug-free, disciplined life with religion as one of his pillars.

Golson's first pillar, however, was always jazz. From the moment that Golson's mother bought him his first saxophone he seemed destined for a life in jazz, describing how his, and childhood pal