When you think of George Benson, chances are your mind goes to his signature songs \u201cBreezin’,\u201d \u201cGive Me The Night,\u201d or his live take on \u201cOn Broadway\u201d. But for all the success that Benson enjoyed in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a lot of time in the trenches building up his name and reputation.<\/p>\n
It’s why I’m surprised that on his debut album, The New Boss Guitar Of George Benson<\/i>, the guitarist more often than not takes a back seat to other members of the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet, and his string work, especially when he’s playing leads, is buried in the mix.<\/p>\n
Granted, Benson seems like the kind of person more than willing to share the spotlight \u2013 something he often does with keyboardist McDuff and saxophonist Red Holloway. But when you are feted as the star of the album, wouldn’t you expect to actually be able to hear<\/i><\/b> his playing? Instead, for the first half of the album, Benson’s guitar work sounds sadly muted on tracks like \u201cThe Sweet Alice Blues\u201d and \u201cI Don’t Know.\u201d Meanwhile, the listener keeps waiting for the band to explode into some jazz you can sink your teeth into \u2013 and they come close on \u201cThe Sweet Alice Blues\u201d and \u201cShadow Dancers\u201d \u2013 but songs like \u201cI Don’t Know\u201d and \u201cJust Another Sunday\u201d sound tentative, as if the band is afraid of pressing down on the musical gas pedal.<\/p>\n
When Benson is finally allowed to come to the forefront of the band’s sound is when things finally start to get interesting. \u201cWill You Still Be Mine\u201d is easily the best track on this disc, with smooth, fluid playing by all band members. And while Benson never showboats just to display his skills, he does showcase his talent just enough to let the listener know that he is a force to be reckoned with. Likewise, \u201cRock-A-Bye\u201d is probably the tightest song for Benson and McDuff’s quartet, with good interplay between Benson, McDuff and drummer Montego Joe. If there were more moments like this on the disc, it would be a jazz masterpiece.<\/p>\n
It’s sad, though, that often the playing, while good, seems to lack the hunger that some have come to expect in jazz, especially in a time when the genre was bursting at the seams with new talent. Make no mistake, Benson’s name belongs in that echelon as well, and The New Boss Guitar Of George Benson<\/i> is a good, if mildly flawed, first step into those waters. But it’s not often that you hear the boss made to become the second banana in the act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9926],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44736","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-george-benson-brother-jack-mcduff-quartet","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44736","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44736"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}