Benson Broadway

George Benson - Weekend In L.A. (1977) {Warner Bros. 3139-2 rel 1999}
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© 1977, 1999 Warner Bros. Records Inc. | 3139-2
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Crossover Jazz / Quiet Storm / Guitar

Recording live at Los Angeles' Roxy club – then a showcase for many of the hottest acts in pop – was just the tonic that George Benson and his Breezin' band needed on this often jumping album. With unusually lively crowds (for a record-industry watering hole) shouting encouragement, the band gets deep into the four-on-the-floor funk and Benson digs in hard, his rhythmic instincts on guitar sharp as ever. The balance between vocals and instrumentals is about even – George's voice sounds more throaty and soul-oriented than before – and amid the new material, there is a revisit to a favored CTI-era instrumental, the lovely "Ode to a Kudu."

This particular Origina Album Classics release contains five albums issued by George Benson through the Warner Bros. label: Breezin' (1976), Weekend in L.A. (1977), Give Me the Night (1980), Tenderly (1989), and Big Boss Band (1990). This is a rather arbitrary assortment; Benson made several other significant albums during the span covered here, and the stylistic differences between the earliest and latest sets are stark.

Give Me The Night is a 1980 album by American singer George Benson. Released Summer 1980, Produced by Quincy Jones and released on Jones' start-up label Qwest Records, in conjunction with Warner Bros. Records, this album would chart number one on both the Top Soul Albums and Jazz Albums Chart as well as number three on the Billboard Pop Albums charts. Lead by the number one single on the Soul Singles chart, "Give Me the Night". The song "Moody´s Mood" was recorded with R&B singer Patti Austin. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA. This would be the only album that Quincy Jones would produce for George Benson. This album won Benson three Grammy Awards in 1981; Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, while "Moody's Mood" received Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male and "Off Broadway" received Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

U-Nam makes one goal of Weekend in L.A.: A Tribute to George Benson clear: He wants to pay honor to the guitarist who served as a major musical influence. However, because U-Nam himself is an innovator steeped in R&B and hip-hop along with jazz, he is not content to make the kind of record that Benson might have dropped in 1980. U-Nam incorporates those genres into this work in the same manner that Benson moved further along the jazz-pop road that Wes Montgomery was starting down prior to his untimely death in 1968.