Internationally known composer and saxophonist Benny Golson will receive the School of Music's prestigious Ellington Medal during a concert on Saturday, Dec. 13, in which he will be featured performing with his quartet. The event is sponsored by the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale as part of its Vocal Jazz Project.
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall, 470 College St. Also performing will be the Manjé Quartet, a New Haven-based a cappella singing group that recently won the Teen Summit Talent Contest sponsored by Black Entertainment Television.
Mr. Golson has had a multi-faceted musical career as a performer, composer, arranger, lyricist and producer. He began his musical career performing in his hometown of Philadelphia, then shifted his activities to New York City, where he gained fame as a saxophonist performing with the bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Earl Bostic, Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, as well as with the Farmer/Golson Jazztet and the Benny Golson Quartet.
Mr. Golson later moved to Hollywood for several years, and there wrote scores for "M*A*S*H," "Mission Impossible," "Room 222," "The Partridge Family," "Mannix," "Run for Your Life," "Mod Squad" and "The Karen Valentine Show," as well as for feature films in the United States, Paris and Munich, and specials for the BBC in London. Other projects included writing music for Diana Ross, Connie Francis, Eartha Kitt, Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, Mama Cass Elliot, Percy Faith, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Mickey Rooney, Sammy Davis Jr., John Coltrane, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and other performers. Many of his compositions have become jazz standards, and he has also written several classical works.
In addition to being a lecturer at major universities, Mr. Golson is an international recording artist. He has recorded over 30 albums under his own name, as well as numerous albums with other artists.
The Manjé Quartet is comprised of Lakisha Wright, Laquella Gibbs, Opel Thompson and Chalilah Shakir -- all students or recent graduates of New Haven's Co-op and Hillhouse High Schools. The group, which performed on campus last year as part of the Ellington Fellowship's 25th anniversary concert, is poised to sign its first recording contract.
The Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale was established in 1972 by School of Music faculty member Willie Ruff in order to bring prominent figures in African-American music to New Haven so they can teach and perform at Yale and in the New Haven public schools.
Among the other artists the fellowship has brought to campus are singers Odetta, Bessie Jones and Nate Pruitt, saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter, tap dancer Honi Coles and instrumentalists Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie.
Tickets for the Dec. 13 concert are $20, $16 and $12; $6 for students. To order tickets, call 432-4158.