George Benson Live

On November 6, 2020, Mascot Label Group/Provogue Records releases a new live album "Weekend In London", by the legendary George Benson. As an all-time icon and Grammy-winning giant of jazz, we have grown used to seeing George Benson on the stages that befit his sky-high status. During a six-decade career marked by awards, acclaim and Billboard-topping output, the Pennsylvania-born veteran has earned his place in both the history books and the biggest venues around the world. So it's a rare treat - and a whole different thrill - to find this megastar going nose-to-nose with the breathless 250-capacity crowd at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, one of London's most prestigious and famous venues. Weekend In London brings Benson full circle.

George Benson - San Francisco, 1972 (1996) {Giants Of Jazz CD 53284}
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© 1972, 1996 Giants Of Jazz | CD 53284 | Immortal Concerts Series
Jazz / Fusion / Contemporary Jazz / Crossover Jazz / Guitar

From a vintage year in music. Things are cooking on this recording with Benson, George Duvivier, Mickey Tucker and Al Harewood. I'm not an expert on Benson, but these guys are fairly shedding it up on this live material. Not just the casual swing I'm used to with Benson's jazz guitar, this is a good selection of tunes from a time when there WAS no time limit on songs. People went with and where the inspiration took. Only 2 of the 7 songs are under 10 minutes and Love for Sale is 14 minutes long. I think you will find this a fairly inspired recording. Nice drum solo on Oleo with an excited crowd laughing and cheering him on. Exciting piano work too. Sound quality seems to vary a little between numbers.

George Benson - The Ultimate Collection (2015) [2CD] {Rhino}
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© 2015 Rhino / Warner | 081227955014
Jazz / Contemporary R&B / Mainstream Jazz / Crossover Jazz / Quiet Storm / Soul Jazz

The Ultimate Collection is quite different from the two-disc George Benson overviews that preceded it, including The George Benson Anthology. Like that 2000-released set, this one was also issued through Rhino, though there are only 17 tracks of overlap. The Ultimate Collection has even less in common with Legacy's The Essential George Benson (2006), which naturally favors Benson's Columbia and CTI output. The heart here is 1976-1983, an era during which Benson recorded for Warner and was regularly listed in the Top Ten of the Billboard R&B singles chart.

The 2013 compilation Verve Ultimate Cool: George Benson brings together tracks recorded by the influential jazz guitarist in the '60s and '70s. These are largely groove-oriented cuts that showcase Benson's knack for R&B-influenced jazz improvisation. Here we get such songs as his live version of "Breezin'," a supremely funky "Shape of Things to Come," "Billie's Bounce," and more. Ultimately, Verve Ultimate Cool works as a nice single-disc overview of Benson's soul-jazz period.

Recorded live in San Francisco, California, 1972. George Benson featuring George Duvivier, Mickey Tucker & Al Harewood.

Taken from Columbia's multi-volume jazz primer, this is not bad for a single-company compilation. The selections split down the middle between George Benson's early 1965-1966 Columbia albums and his 1971-1976 CTI output that Columbia now controls; the gaps are obvious but the title of the series neatly narrows the scope of the survey. We hear the young, eager Benson in four cuts from It's Uptown and only two from the superior George Benson Cookbookincluding the spectacular "The Cooker" – before sampling a cut apiece from CTI's Beyond the Blue Horizon, Bad Benson, Good King Bad, and In Concert-At Carnegie Hall.