Jazz

George Benson & Earl Klugh – Collaboration Live In Japan 1988

2010-02-21T12:06:06Z

George Benson & Earl Klugh – Collaboration Live In Japan 1988


01. Since You're Gone 5:21 
02. El Mar 6:50 
03. Heart Strings 6:24 
04. Livin' Inside Your Love 6:52 
05. Six To Four 4:24 
06. Brazilian Stomp 5:26 
07. Dreamin' 6:30 
08. Romeo & Juliet 6:31 
09. Mt. Airy Road 7:42 
10. Mimosa 8:16 
11. Collaboration 7:26

Tokyo, Japan 
15. May 1988

George Benson is a ten-time Grammy Award-winning American musician and singer-songwriter. He began his professional career at twenty-one, as a jazz guitarist. Benson uses a rest-stroke picking technique similar to that of gypsy jazz players such as Django Reinhardt. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, playing soul jazz with Jack McDuff and others. He then launched a successful solo career, alternating between jazz, pop, R&B singing, and scat singing. His album Breezin' was certified triple-platinum on the Billboard 200 chart in 1976. His concerts were well attended through the 1980s, and still has a large following. He has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Earl Klugh is an American smooth jazz/crossover jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer. In 2006 Modern Guitar magazine wrote that Klugh "is considered by many to be one of the finest acoustic guitar players today." ---yourepeat.com

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George Benson - Classic Love Songs (2010)

2010-04-16T14:41:12Z

George Benson - Classic Love Songs (2010)


1. Give Me The Night
2. Love X Love
3. Never Give Up On A Good Thing
4. Lady Love Me (One More Time)
5. Turn Your Love Around
6. Love Ballad
7. We Got The Love
8. Shiver
9. Please Don't Walk Away
10. Midnight Love Affair
11. Nature Boy
12. Livin' Inside Your Love
13. Love All The Hurt Away
14. Breezin'
15. This Masquerade
16. Being With You
17. In Your Eyes
18. The Greatest Love Of All

Legendary jazz and soul performer George Benson has had a career spanning over four decades, and Classic Love Songs is, naturally, a collection of his most romantic hits. Featuring his versatile and classic brand of funk, jazz, and soul, the disc features a parade of his best-known love songs, from "Give Me the Night" to "Never Give Up on a Good Thing." ---Rovi

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George Benson - Goodies (1968)

2009-10-16T20:11:18Z

George Benson - Goodies (1968)


01. I Remember Wes 
02. Carnival Joys 
03. You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman 
04. That Lucky Old Sun 
05. Julie 
06. Windmills Of Your Mind 
07. Doobie, Doobie Blues 
08. Song For My Father 
09. People Get Ready

George Benson – guitar, vocals
Paul Griffin – piano
Jack Jennings – vibraphone, congas
Arthur Clarke, George Marge – flute, tenor saxophone
Chuck Rainey – bass
Bob Cranshaw – bass (4, 7)
Garnett Brown – trombone
Clark Terry -  trumpet
Buddy Lucas – harmonica
Leo Morris – drums
Jimmy Johnson, Jr. – drums (4, 7)
Winston Collymore Strings
Sweet Inspirations – vocals
Horace Ott – conductor, arranger

Verve needed one more album from Benson after he signed with A&M/CTI, and ended up with a strange grab-bag in which Benson plays superbly throughout, whatever the odd goulash of sounds in back of him. Horace Ott's string arrangements are overbearing in scope and undernourished in tone; at times they don't even seem in sync with Benson's group. The big band tracks -- "Song For My Father" in particular -- are more tolerable, and the gospel singing of the Sweet Inspirations is harmless. There is one high-spirited Benson vocal, "That Lucky Old Sun," and it strikes fire. Perversely perhaps, the choice cut is a surprisingly hard-driven "Windmills Of Your Mind," in which Benson fights off the cheesy arrangement with some powerfully rhythmic work (watch out for the shattering psychedelic ending!). ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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George Benson - Walking To New Orleans (2019)

2019-06-29T13:24:33Z

George Benson - Walking To New Orleans (2019)


01 Nadine (Is It You)	 3:54
02 Ain’t That A Shame	 3:50
03 Rockin’ Chair 	3:39
04 You Can’t Catch Me 	3:35
05 Havana Moon 		4:54
06 I Hear You Knocking 	3:45
07 Memphis, Tennessee	 3:19
08 Walking To New Orleans 	4:08
09 Blue Monday 	3:03
10 How You’ve Changed 	3:22

The Bovaland Orchestra
Backing Vocals – Mahalia Barnes, Natasha Stuart, Prinnie Stevens
Baritone Saxophone, Soloist – Ron Dziubla
Bass Guitar – Alison Prestwood
Drums, Percussion – Greg Morrow
Guitar, Vocals – George Benson
Piano – Kevin McKendree
Rhythm Guitar – Rob McNelley
Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Paulie Cerra
Trumpet – Lee Thornburg

George Benson gets back to Americana basics on Walking to New Orleans, the jazz guitar legend's tribute to both piano-pounding hit machine Fats Domino and the original rock guitar hero and poet, Chuck Berry. Walking to New Orleans is Benson's first recording since 2013's Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, but it couldn’t be more different. Where Benson embellished Cole's cool tunes with lush orchestral arrangements, Walking to New Orleans came about by hunkering down in a Music Row studio, with a quartet of first-call Nashville cats. This is Benson's 45th album, and few sound as loose-limbed and flat-out fun. ---allaboutjazz.com

Following up 2013's urbane Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, George Benson returns with another tribute production, 2019's ebullient Walking to New Orleans: Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Interestingly, while Benson is best known for his funky instrumental jazz of the '70s and '80s, and smooth R&B crooning of the '80s and '90s, both of these latter-career tributes find him tackling material from even older traditions. Where Inspiration was a lushly swinging standards album, Walking to New Orleans is all blues grit and old-school R&B swagger. Though primarily influenced by jazz artists like Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian, Benson certainly owes at least a modicum of his soulful style to early rock legends Berry and Domino, both of whom helped shape the sound of modern rock and pop music. As Benson grew up in Pittsburgh, the album's title evokes a conceptual travelogue as he moves from the Midwest through Berry's home state of Missouri, all the way down South to Domino's hometown of New Orleans. To help achieve this rootsy trek, Benson worked with producer Kevin Shirley (John Hiatt, Aerosmith, Joe Bonamassa) at Nashville's Ocean Way Studios, where he also conscripted the assistance of pros like drummer/music director Greg Morrow, guitarist Rob McNelley, pianist Kevin McKendree, and bassist Alison Prestwood. The results are loose and straightforward as Benson (primarily showcased here as a singer) takes on Berry favorites like "Walking," "Nadine (Is It You?)," and "Memphis, Tennessee," as well as Domino hits like "Ain't That a Shame," "I Heart You Knocking," and "Blue Monday." While there are tasty Benson guitar licks peppered throughout, fans of his instrumental work may wish there was more of an emphasis on his improvisation. Nonetheless, these are earthy and robust productions that never stray too far afield of their rock & roll source. ---Matt Collar, AllMusic Review

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George Benson ‎– The Other Side Of Abbey Road (1970)

2018-10-09T14:43:24Z

George Benson ‎– The Other Side Of Abbey Road (1970)


A1 	Golden Slumbers 	2:35
A2 	You Never Give Me Your Money 	3:07
A3 	Because / Come Together 	7:25
A4 	Oh! Darling 	3:55
B1 	Here Comes The Sun 	2:25
B2 	I Want You (She's So Heavy) 	6:20
B3 	Something / Octopus's Garden 	4:30
B4 	The End 	1:55

Guitar, Vocals – George Benson
Alto Saxophone – Sonny Fortune
Arranged By – Don Sebesky
Baritone Saxophone – Don Ashworth
Bass – Jerry Jemmott, Ron Carter
Bass Clarinet – Don Ashworth
Cello – George Ricci
Clarinet – Jerome Richardson
Drums – Ed Shaughnessy, Idris Muhammad
Flute – Hubert Laws, Jerome Richardson
Flute, Oboe – Phil Bodner
Percussion – Andy Gonzalez, Ray Barretto
Piano, Organ, Harpsichord – Bob James, Ernie Hayes, Herbie Hancock
Tenor Saxophone – Jerome Richardson
Trombone, Euphonium – Wayne Andre
Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Bernie Glow, Marvin Stamm, Mel Davis
Viola – Emanuel Vardi
Violin – Max Pollikoff, Raoul Poliakin

Just three weeks after the U.S. release of the Beatles' swan song, Abbey Road, Creed Taylor ushered George Benson into the studio to begin a remarkably successful pop-jazz translation of the record (complete with a parody of the famous cover, showing Benson with guitar crossing an Eastern urban street). It is a lyrical album, with a hint of the mystery and a lot of the cohesive concept of the Beatles' original despite the scrambled order of the tunes. Benson is given some room to stretch out on guitar, sometimes in a bluesy groove, and there are more samples of his honeyed vocals than ever before (oddly, his voice would not be heard again by record-buyers until he signed with Warner Bros.). Don Sebesky's arrangements roam freely from baroque strings to a full-throated big band, and Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Fortune, and Hubert Laws get some worthy solo space. Yet for all its diversity, the record fits together as a whole more tightly than any other George Benson project, thanks to his versatile talents and the miraculous overarching unity of the Beatles' songs. One wonders if the Fab Four liked it, too. ---Richard S. Ginell, AllMusic Review

I first heard The Other Side Of Abbey Road at a cozy coffee shop in Hollywood, California, early in my jazz discovery days. At the time, I was just recovering from a heavy overdose on the Beatles, having listened to all their post-LSD records almost exclusively for several months. I was ready for something new, and an album of Beatles covers was not exactly what I had in mind. Nevertheless, my curiosity was aroused once George Benson's velvety voice rang out across the cafe singing "Golden Slumbers" against Don Sebesky's schmaltzy backdrop of strings.

"Hmmm..." I thought somewhat dismissively, as the song transitioned into a borderline musak version of "You Never Give Me Your Money." The lush baroque string arrangement on "Because" had me reaching for my magazine when Idris Muhammad and Ron Carter intervened, knocking me out of my chair with their swampy, indestructible groove on "Come Together." As George Benson tore into his fluid and funky solo, I was lifted. I wandered over to the counter and asked who they were playing. "George Benson?!?" I responded in disbelief. My mental scheme was thrown into disarray...I had already pegged George Benson as the King of Slick, so what was THIS I was hearing?

My prejudices shattered, I went to the record store for a copy of this quirky jazz-pop album of Abbey Road covers. "Out of Print!?!" I asked, again in disbelief, not realizing that I had just acquired my very first hard-to-find CD obsession. I spent the next 5 years scouring the "B" section of every used record store for this elusive gem. Then one day my luck hit. My girlfriend and I were at Moby Disc in Santa Monica (check it out!) when I finally found myself staring at a picture of Benson in parody of the Beatles, guitar in hand, crossing an urban American street. I had finally found The Other Side Of Abbey Road.

My girlfriend smiled indulgently as I skipped to the register, commenting that the album cover looked cool. (This concept would be more fully realized a year later, when Booker T. & The MGs posed for the front photo of their own classic Abbey Road cover album, McLemore Avenue.)

When we brought the prized disc home and put it on, it was my girlfriend who now looked on with disbelief. "THIS is what you've been obsessing over for so long!?!" she exclaimed. She still doesn't get it...but that's okay. While the record did sound a little more cheesy than I had remembered (in fact, it started sounding better in my head each year I didn't have it), I was still completely blown away as soon as I heard Benson's jazz-funk treatment of "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." His soulful singing on "Oh! Darling" put the glide back in my stride. I really wanted to call up Paul McCartney and ask him if he liked it too. Recorded just three weeks after the Beatles released Abbey Road, George Benson's set of Beatles covers are the best ever recorded by a jazz artist. And Benson had lots of competition, as many talented jazz improvisors and composers resorted to pillaging the Beatles songbook, hoping to make a living in those trying rock and roll times of the late 60s and early 70s.

While commercial success eventually did come to Benson, it came mostly at the expense of his brilliant guitar playing. The Other Side Of Abbey Road predates Benson's notorious 70s sellout. This is an incredibly tight and cohesive album, filled with great solos by Benson, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and Sonny Fortune. Creed Taylor really hit his stride with this record, laying the blueprint for his classic CTI-label formula: top-ten pop covers, top-flight musicians, tight arrangements, atmospheric Don Sebesky strings, and superb Rudy Van Gelder sound quality. All these winning elements come together here, making this the most moody, melodic, complex, and funky of the "good" George Benson records worth owning. ---John Ballon, allaboutjazz.com

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George Benson – Beyond The Blue Horizon (1971)

2014-03-02T17:37:04Z

George Benson – Beyond The Blue Horizon (1971)


01. So What [0:09:20.57]
02. The Gentle Rain [0:09:15.23]
03. All Clear [0:05:29.55]
04. Ode To A Kudu [0:03:48.20]
05. Somewhere In The East [0:06:11.47]
06. All Clear (alt. Take) [0:05:47.60]
07. Ode To A Kudu (alt. take) [0:04:41.53]
08. Somewhere In The East (alt. take) [0:09:46.32]

George Benson – guitar, vocals
Ron Carter – bass
Jack DeJohnette – drums
Clarence Palmer - organ
Michael Cameron – percussion
Albert Nicholson - percussion

Having taken Benson along with him when he founded CTI, Creed Taylor merely leaves the guitarist alone with a small group on his first release. The payoff is a superb jazz session where Benson rises to the challenge of the turbulent rhythm section of Jack DeJohnette and Ron Carter, with Clarence Palmer ably manning the organ. Benson is clearly as much at home with DeJohnette's advanced playing as he was in soul/jazz (after all, he did play on some Miles Davis sessions a few years before), and his tone is edgier, with more bite, than it had been for awhile. The lyrical Benson is also on eloquent display in "Ode to a Kudu" (heard twice on the CD, as is "All Clear"), and there is even a somewhat experimental tilt toward Afro-Cuban-Indian rhythms in "Somewhere to the East." A must-hear for all aficionados of Benson's guitar. --- Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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George Benson – Breezin’ (1976)

2009-10-16T20:10:06Z

George Benson – Breezin’ (1976)


1. Breezin' 
2. This Masquerade 
3. Six to Four 
4. Affirmation 
5. So This Is Love? 
6. Lady 

George Benson 	- Guitar, Vocals
Stanley Banks - Bass
Jorge Dalto - Clavinet, Keyboards, Piano
Ronnie Foster - Keyboards, Moog Synthesizer, Piano, Piano (Electric)
Ralph MacDonald - Percussion
Harvey Mason, Sr. - Drums
Claus Ogerman - Arranger, Conductor
Phil Upchurch - Bass, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)

All of a sudden, George Benson became a pop superstar with this album, thanks to its least representative track. Most of Breezin' is a softer-focused variation of Benson's R&B/jazz-flavored CTI work, his guitar as assured and fluid as ever with Claus Ogerman providing the suave orchestral backdrops and his crack then-working band (including Ronnie Foster on keyboards and sparkplug Phil Upchurch on rhythm guitar) pumping up the funk element. Yet it is the sole vocal track (his first in many years), Leon Russell's "This Masquerade" -- where George unveiled his new trademark, scatting along with a single-string guitar solo -- that reached number ten on the pop singles chart and drove the album all the way to number one on the pop (!) LP chart. The attractive title track also became a minor hit single, although Gabor Szabo's 1971 recording with composer Bobby Womack is even more fetching. In the greater scheme of Benson's career, Breezin' is really not so much a breakthrough as it is a transition album; the guitar is still the core of his identity. ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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George Benson – Doin’ The Thing (2012)

2012-12-02T18:03:23Z

George Benson – Doin’ The Thing (2012)


1. Bayou
2. Hammond's Bossa Nova
3. Willow Weep For Me
4. Clabber Biscuits
5. Chicken Giblets
6. Mama Wailer
7. Goodnight
8. The Man From Toledo
9. My Baby
10. Minor Truth
11. Slow Scene
12. Flamingo
13. Redwood City
14. The Cooker
15. Return Of The Prodigal Son
16. Push, Push
17. Benson's Rider
18. Doin' The Thing

George Benson is simply one of the greatest guitarists in jazz history, but he is also an amazingly versatile musician, and that frustrates to no end critics who would paint him into a narrow bop box. He can play in just about any style -- from swing to bop to R&B to pop -- with supreme taste, a beautiful rounded tone, terrific speed, a marvelous sense of logic in building solos, and, always, an unquenchable urge to swing. His inspirations may have been Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery -- and he can do dead-on impressions of both -- but his style is completely his own. Not only can he play lead brilliantly, he is also one of the best rhythm guitarists around, supportive to soloists and a dangerous swinger, particularly in a soul-jazz format. Yet Benson can also sing in a lush, soulful tenor with mannerisms similar to those of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, and it is his voice that has proved to be more marketable to the public than his guitar. Benson is the guitar-playing equivalent of Nat King Cole -- a fantastic pianist whose smooth way with a pop vocal eventually eclipsed his instrumental prowess in the marketplace -- but unlike Cole, Benson has been granted enough time after his fling with the pop charts to reaffirm his jazz guitar credentials, which he still does at his concerts.

Benson actually started out professionally as a singer, performing in nightclubs at eight, recording four sides for RCA's X label in 1954, forming a rock band at 17 while using a guitar that his stepfather made for him. Exposure to records by Christian, Montgomery, and Charlie Parker got him interested in jazz, and by 1962, the teenaged Benson was playing in Brother Jack McDuff's band. After forming his own group in 1965, Benson became another of talent scout John Hammond's major discoveries, recording two highly regarded albums of soul-jazz and hard bop for Columbia and turning up on several records by others, including Miles Davis' Miles in the Sky. He switched to Verve in 1967, and, shortly after the death of Montgomery in June 1968, producer Creed Taylor began recording Benson with larger ensembles on A&M (1968-1969) and big groups and all-star combos on CTI (1971-1976).

While the A&M and CTI albums certainly earned their keep and made Benson a guitar star in the jazz world, the mass market didn't catch on until he began to emphasize vocals after signing with Warner Bros. in 1976. His first album for Warner Bros., Breezin', became a Top Ten hit on the strength of its sole vocal track, "This Masquerade," and this led to a string of hit albums in an R&B-flavored pop mode, culminating with the Quincy Jones-produced Give Me the Night. As the '80s wore on, though, Benson's albums became riddled with commercial formulas and inferior material, with his guitar almost entirely relegated to the background. Perhaps aware of the futility of chasing the charts (after all, "This Masquerade" was a lucky accident), Benson reversed his field late in the '80s to record a fine album of standards, Tenderly, and another with the Basie band, his guitar now featured more prominently. His pop-flavored work also improved noticeably in the '90s. Benson retains the ability to spring surprises on his fans and critics, like his dazzlingly idiomatic TV appearance and subsequent record date with Benny Goodman in 1975 in honor of John Hammond, and his awesome command of the moment at several Playboy Jazz Festivals in the '80s. His latter-day recordings include the 1998 effort Standing Together, 2000's Absolute Benson, 2001's All Blues, and 2004's Irreplaceable. Three songs from 2006's Givin' It Up, recorded with Al Jarreau, were nominated for Grammy Awards in separate categories.

Benson began to see numerous reissues of his catalog material from his years with producer Creed Taylor on Verve, A&M, and CTI, from 2008 on. In 2009, he signed to Concord and released Songs and Stories for the label, and followed it up with his first primarily instrumental album in 35 years entitled Guitar Man in 2011. ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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George Benson – Giblet Gravy (1968)

2010-10-12T12:06:56Z

George Benson – Giblet Gravy (1968)


1. Along Comes Mary
2. Sunny         play
3. What’s New?
4. Giblet Gravy
5. Walk on By
6. Thunder Walk
7. Sack O’ Woe
8. Groovin’      play
9. Low Down and Dirty
10. Billie’s Bounce
11. What’s New? [alternate take]
12. What’s New? [alternate take 2]

Personnel: 
George Benson (guitar); 
Albertine Robinson, Lois Winter, Eileen Gilbert (vocals); 
Eric Gale , Carl Lynch (guitar); 
Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone); 
Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn); 
Ernie Royal, Snooky Young (trumpet); 
Alan Raph (bass trombone); 
Herbie Hancock (piano); 
Billy Cobham (drums); 
Johnny Pacheco (congas, tambourine).

This reissue of Benson's 1968 Verve LP is worth the price of admission just for three of the small-group cuts. "Billie's Bounce," "Low Down and Dirty," and "Thunder Walk" find the guitarist stretching out in the company of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Billy Cobham on an uptempo Charlie Parker blues, a gutbucket slow blues and a deeply blue hard-bop groove tune, respectively. This recording sits right between Benson's early small-combo records as a leader and his move to even more heavily produced recordings for CTI.

The grooves are groovy, the horns are punchy, and the then-future of jazz guitar makes his way through the charts as feature artist, laying down the head, shadow boxing with the swaggering arrangements for a chorus or two, and getting out in a radio-friendly two minute and fifty-nine seconds. Plus you get to hear Benson and Hancock duking it out like they mean it on "Low Down and Dirty."

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George Benson – Songs and Stories (2009)

2011-10-07T08:34:22Z

George Benson – Songs and Stories (2009)


01 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight [3:51]
02 Family Reunion [4:21]					play
03 Show Me The Love [4:19]					play
04 A Telephone Call Away [5:58]
05 Someday We'll All Be Free [6:24]
06 Nuthin' But A Party [5:32]
07 Come In From The Cold [4:35]
08 Exotica [5:32]
09 Rainy Night In Georgia [4:53]
10 One Like You [4:45]
11 Living In High Definition [7:25]
12 Sailing [5:18]

Personnel:
George Benson - Vocals, guitar 
Gerald Albright, Tom Scott - Saxophones 
Toninho Horta, Jubu, Paul Jackson Jr., Steve Lukather, Wah Wah Watson, Lee Ritenour, Marcelo Lima - Guitars 
William Magalhaes - Fender Rhodes 
Greg Phillinganes - Fender Rhodes, keyboards, piano 
Rod Temperton, David Paich - Keyboards 
Bruno Cardozo, Bobby Sparks II - Hammond B3 organ, keyboards 
Steve Porcaro - Synthesiser 
David Garfield - Piano, organ, keyboards 
Marcus Miller - Bass, Fender Rhodes, marimba, keyboards, vibes, percussion, vocals 
Butterscotch - Beat box 
John "JR" Robinson, Maguinho Alcantara - Drums 
Paulinho Da Costa - Percussion 
Noel Lee - Wind chimes 
Lalah Hathaway - Vocals 
Patti Austin - Vocals, background vocals 
Norman Brown - Vocals, guitar 
Carolyn Perry, Lori Perry, Sharon Perry - Background vocals

Many jazz fans regret the fact that (like Nat "King" Cole) George Benson seemed to be gradually drifting away from the jazz world when he started doing vocals more and more and playing the guitar less and less. The shift is exemplified in the sleeve listing of "George Benson - Vocals, guitar" - not the other way round. Yet he still plays the guitar, although we are unlikely to hear any jazz as forthright as the thrilling stuff he played on early albums like The George Benson Cookbook in 1966.

This new CD is not much different from many of George's previous albums, but at least he chooses quality songs by such composers as James Taylor (Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight) and Smokey Robinson (One Like You). The opening track betrays the influence on Benson's vocals of Ray Charles, although that's a pretty good model. In Show Me the Love and several other tracks, George does his distinctive trick of scatting along with his guitar - either in unison or in harmony - and it's a bewitching sound. A Telephone Call Away has Lalah Hathaway guesting on vocals and sounding mellifluously like Randy Crawford.

Benson's version of Someday We'll All Be Free underlines the resemblance between his vocal style and that of the song's composer, Donny Hathaway. Despite the large number of contributors to this album, Come in from the Cold is marred by a thick, thudding bass. Like several songs on the albums, this is basically a routine funk outing. The worst example is Nuthin' but a Party with an unsubtle drum loop. However, George's personal mix of voice and guitar often adds a touch of class to even a mediocre tune - and brings out the best in a good one. Although very different in many ways, George Benson is similar to B. B. King in having a guitar style that perfectly fits his singing.

The album ends with Sailing (the song by Christopher Cross, not the Rod Stewart anthem), which - because it is mainly an instrumental - hints at what jazz devotees lost when Benson put his emphasis on vocals instead of guitar. The result is an album that is more likely to be filed under "Easy Listening" than "Jazz" - but it is still very agreeable. ---Tony Augarde

Veteran smooth jazz guitar master George Benson is no one-dimensional purveyor of musical wallpaper. He is, without question, one of the few remaining true musical legends. Guitar is his genius, but it is George Benson's voice that is his fame and fortune. It is 30 years since Benson made a similar strategic decision to go with the smooth, choosing mass appeal over the affection of a chin-stroking jazz minority. It means that today the 66-year old is able to step sprightly forth to an introduction that describes him portentously as "ten-time Grammy award winner George Benson".

Few musicians master even one style of writing and performing in their lifetime, but Benson has at least two under his belt - soulful R&B and authentic Wes Montgomery-style jazz guitar. The fact that he works in two camps should work against him, but it didn't. Jazz fans ought to be horrified that he sings pop songs, while the R&B fans should be scratching their heads when he starts playing be-bop guitar lines. Somehow he pulls everyone together, though, and gets roars of approval whether he's singing seductively a deep and velvety ballad, or pulling off the kind of guitar licks that Django Reinhardt would have been proud of. This recording is another snapshot of a career that has spanned nearly five decades and many successful albums, and it wires towads the smooth side.

The beauty of the set is the band's ability to move between genres Soul, Jazz, Funk and back again. It's a mixed bag, older songs such as Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All be Free" matched by some new pop tunes such as Marc Broussard's "Come in From The Cold". "Songs and Stories" is wide-ranging enough to cover a swaying, uptempo version of James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" - featuring the excellent Tonhino Horta on acoustic guitar and Paulinho da Costa on percussion - and Bill Withers' "A Telephone Call Away", a laidback, 80's style groove which features the ubiquitous (and sometimes over-rated) Lalah Hathaway on vocals. Another highlight is the gorgeous, anthemic "Someday We'll All Be Free", which receives a beautiful small jazz band treatment here, without reaching though the height of the masterful, prime jazz version by the incomparable Regina Belle on Baby Come to Me: The Best of Regina Belle, track # 9.

But then, this is the good thing of this album, George Benson plays in such a relaxed fashion, never pretending to offer his audience the definitive versions or to strike it with masterpieces, and without being too formulaic and repetitive. Many guests join in: the Perri Sisters and Patti Austin on background vocals, Greg Phillinganes on keyboards, Tom Scott and Gerald Albright on sax, Marcus Miller -who co-produces with John Burk - on bass, Jubu and Lee Ritenour on guitar and more. George Benson is quite capable of providing a five-star masterpiece, which "Songs And Stories"" is not. Nonetheless, this release has more pluses than minuses. This is another winning number and a very strong selection of Smooth Jazz grooves that mixes in Funk and Fusion. As usual, Benson's playing is soulful, smoothly evocative and fluid. And very enjoyable. You will love this elegant, feel-good album. Enjoy! The album debuts at # 1 of the Billboard Top Jazz Albums. --- Jazz for the dappers, amazon.com

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