Benny Golson released something a little different back in 1985 with The Genius of Benny Golson. He was 55 years old, and about 8 years into a revival of his recording and performance career, which had been largely dormant from 1964–1976. (During this time, he worked as a television and film composer, an arranger, and a studio musician.)
Golson was a revered jazz master by this point. He had composed several jazz standards, and had an extensive discography that included a celebrated stint with Art Blakey at a key point in Blakey’s career (1958–59), plus a string of records made in the late 1950s and early 1960s that had top-notch musicians playing his compositions and arrangements. Golson’s 1980s recording output frequently reunited him with Art Farmer and Curtis Fuller, and he even returned to the Art Blakey fold for an all-star tour early in the decade.
Tours and new recordings aside, it was his composing and arranging talents that were front and center in The Genius of Benny Golson, a collection of 15 solo piano arrangements of his own work that was originally published by Columbia Pictures Publications.
The collection followed similar folios honoring Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson, and represented a new wrinkle in the series, putting the spotlight on the hard bop / post-war aesthetic. (It came a year after The Genius of Dave Brubeck, which likewise moved the series out of its swing roots.)