{"id":41622,"date":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-essential-george-benson\/"},"modified":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","slug":"the-essential-george-benson","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-essential-george-benson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Essential George Benson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I met guitar and vocal extraordinaire George Benson was in a small jazz club in downtown Phoenix<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Sitting in front of the band, eating a plate of hot wings, I saw him walk by, but not where he sat. During the band\u2019s break, I heard a beautiful voice singing behind me. I turned around and, sure enough, saw George entertaining a group of people with his signature tenor. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Flash-forward a year and I am writing a review on The Essential George Benson, <\/i>a 2006 revue of his work with written song-by-song commentary by Benson. The two-disc set spans Benson\u2019s career, giving a broad understanding of his musical evolution.\u00a0 Much of disc one focuses on the traditional jazz that populated the first part of his career.\u00a0 It contains his early work with the Jack McDuff Quartet (\u201cRocky Candy\u201d and \u201cShadow Dancers\u201d), an upbeat vocal version of Gershwin\u2019s \u201cA Foggy Day,\u201d his short stint as a sideman for Miles Davis with the avant-garde \u201cParaphernalia,\u201d and his time as Stanley Turrentine\u2019s guitarist with the powerfully raw \u201cSugar.\u201d While these are all worth a listen, especially \u201cA Foggy Day\u201d and \u201cSugar,\u201d it is with Miles Davis\u2019 \u201cSo What\u201d that Benson finds his voice on the guitar.\u00a0 This is the Benson who has forever made his mark on American music! The ease with which he mixes funk, rock, and jazz foreshadows his hit-making period chronicled in disc two.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The second starts with Benson\u2019s Grammy-nominated \u201cWhite Rabbit,\u201d a flamenco tune Benson describes as \u201creally overdone in terms of production.\u201d Following \u201cWhite Rabbit,\u201d Benson brings the funk with the original \u201cBody Talk\u201d and a soulful rendition of Dave Brubeck\u2019s \u201cTake Five.\u201d After beautifully singing another Gershwin song, \u201cSummertime,\u201d the disc moves into his four biggest hits: \u201cBreezin\u2019,\u201d \u201cThis Masqeurade,\u201d \u201cOn Broadway,\u201d and \u201cGive Me The Night.\u201d The indelibly smooth \u201cBreezin\u2019\u201d is easy listening at its best: soft guitar tones, a singable guitar\/flute motif, no vocals, and lush strings. In contrast, \u201cThis Masquerade\u201d is a powerful, dynamic, and oft gritty exploration of dysfunctional relationships, reminiscent of Sinatra\u2019s \u201cSend In The Clowns.\u201d \u201cOn Broadway\u201d is probably Benson\u2019s most famous recording, as it deserves to be. His vocals on this live track are amazing and his vocal\/guitar solo is killer. Classic Benson! Melodic, progressive, and endearing. Ending Benson\u2019s four consecutive hits is \u201cGive Me The Night,\u201d which was produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton of \u201cThriller\u201d fame.\u00a0 Benson\u2019s smooth R&B vocals and rhythmic guitar playing make this a sweet, romantic experience.\u00a0 The last two songs on disc two, \u201cHip Skip\u201d with Tony Williams and \u201cGotham<\/st1:placename> City<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u201d with Dexter Gordon, signal Benson\u2019s return to instrumental funk and jazz after success as an R&B crooner.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Commenting on \u201cThis Masquerade\u201d in the liner notes, Benson recalls producer Tommy LiPuma remarking, \u201cI can\u2019t understand why they are not using your [Benson\u2019s] voice.\u201d I found myself wondering the same thing. Presumably, Benson first gained popularity as a guitar player and was subsequently hired to do that. And Benson undoubtedly filled that role well, marvelously fitting into the long tradition of jazz guitarists like Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. But Benson also has a beautiful voice, as I luckily experienced that night in the jazz club. It is a wonder the record company didn\u2019t use it more. Notice that three out of the four biggest hits on this album were vocal tracks. Also note that the only vocal track on the less hit-filled disc one is \u201cA Foggy Day.\u201d And why is 1981\u2019s \u201cTurn Your Love Around\u201d missing from this collection? With its romantic melody and groveling vocals, it also deserves to be one of Benson\u2019s essentials.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the end, this history-laden album contains some amazing music. It presents Benson as a Jack-of-all-trades: a brilliant guitarist, productive songwriter, and soulful singer with, as the back cover states, \u201cmatinee-idol good looks.\u201d My only complaint is that they should have showcased his voice more. Sure, Benson is a great guitarist. But couldn\u2019t they let the cat sing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":29994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6684],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41622","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-george-benson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41622"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}