George Benson

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George Benson
Born March 22, 1943, Pittsburgh
Genre(s) Jazz
Notable guitars Ibanez GB10 Signature Model - The longest running Ibanez signature model - still in production after almost 30 years

Ibanez GB200 Signature Model

See Ibanez Website[1]
Years active 1964 - present
Official site Official Website
This article is about the jazz musician. For the British politician, see George Benson (politician).

George Benson (b. March 22, 1943, Pittsburgh) is an American musician, whose recording career began at the age of 21 as a jazz guitarist. He is however, better known to the public at large as a Pop/R&B singer, famous for such hits as Give Me The Night, Lady Love Me (One More Time), Turn Your Love Around, In Your Eyes and This Masquerade, among others.

Contents

[edit] Early career

George Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He now lives in Engelwood, New Jersey in Bergen County. George Benson started out playing straight-ahead instrumental jazz with organist Jack McDuff. Benson got his first experience playing with his several-year stint with McDuff's group. At the age of 21, Benson recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, with Brother Jack McDuff on organ.

Benson's next recording was It's Uptown with the George Benson Quartet with Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax. This album showcases Benson's talent in constructing swinging bebop lines at blistering tempos. Benson followed it up with "The George Benson Cookbook," also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber.

Miles Davis employed Benson's talents in the mid 1960s; Benson played guitar on Paraphenalia, which appeared on the trumpeters 1967 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky. He went to Verve Records for a spell afterwards. Then, Creed Taylor signed him up for his CTI label, where he recorded numerous albums with jazz heavyweights guesting to limited financial success. Benson also did his versions of The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road which he entitled, The Other Side Of Abbey Road (also released in 1969 and which arguably is one of the most underrated fusion/jazz albums ever released) and "White Rabbit", (who's best known version was done by the Jefferson Airplane), around this time.

[edit] 1970's and 80's Success

By the mid to late 1970s, as he recorded for Warner Brothers Records (he had recently signed with them) a whole new audience began to discover Benson for the first time. With the 1976 release Breezin (which is also the name of a memorable instrumental which became an AM Radio staple), Benson began to put his vocal on some tracks, like This Masquerade, which was the first song to make #1 on the Billboard pop, jazz and R&B charts.

On the strength of This Masquerade (it also won the Grammy for the Record Of The Year) and the electrifying live take of the classic On Broadway recorded about a year later (from the 1977 release Weekend in L.A. and which also won a Grammy), he was able to crack through via the Pop and R&B Top Ten and as the 1970's wound down, songs such as the aforementioned Give Me The Night (which was produced by Quincy Jones), Turn Your Love Around and others became big hits for Benson as well. On Warner Brothers, Benson accumulated three other platinum LPs and two gold albums.

He also recorded the original version of Greatest Love Of All for the 1977 Muhammad Ali bio-pic, The Greatest, (which was later recorded successfully as a cover by Whitney Houston).

[edit] Later and Current Career

By the mid 1980s, Benson cooled down a bit on the charts and spent the rest of the decade and the 1990s and up till today, recording jazz albums that once again showcase his guitar work, and he still tours and records currently. In 1992 Benson appeared on Jack McDuff's Colour Me Blue album.

[edit] Discography

Taken from the Dutch Wikipedia.

[edit] Albums

Title Release Remarks
George Benson/Jack McDuff 1964 -
The New Boss Guitar 1964 -
Benson Burner 1965 -
This is Jazz, Vol. 9 1965 -
Its Uptown 1966 -
George Benson Cookbook 1966 -
Benson Burner 1966 -
Blue Benson 1967 -
Willow Weep For Me 1967 -
Giblet Gravy 1968 -
Shape of Things to Come 1968 -
Goodies 1968 -
Tell It Like It Is 1969 -
The other side of Abbey Road 1969 -
I Got A Woman And Some Blues 1970 -
Beyond the Blue Horizon 1971 recorded at Van Gelder Studios (NL)
White Rabbit 1971 -
Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon Vol. 1 & 2 1973 Live
Wichcraft 1973 Live
Body Talk 1973 -
Bad Benson 1974 -
In Concert-Carnegie Hall 1975 Live
Good King Bad 1975 -
Breezin 1976 -
Benson & Farrell 1976 -
In Flight 1977 -
Livin' Inside Your Love 1977 -
Weekend in L.A 1977 -
Space Album 1978 -
In Your Eyes 1978 -
Take Five 1979 -
Cast Your Fate to the Wind 1980 -
Give Me The Night 1980 -
GB 1981 -
The George Benson Collection 1981 -
Pacific Fire 1983 -
20-20 1984 -
Live in Concert 1984 Live
While The City Sleeps… 1986 -
Collaboration 1987 -
Twice the Love 1988 -
Tenderly 1989 -
Big Boss Band 1990 -
The Essence of George Benson 1992 -
Love Remembers 1993 -
The Most Exciting New Guitarist on the Jazz Scene 1994 -
California Dreamin' 1996 -
Lil Darlin' 1996 -
Thats Right 1996 -
Standing Together 1998 -
Masquerade 1998 -
The Masquerade Is Over 1999 -
Absolute Benson 2000 -
All Blues 2001 -
Blue Bossa 2002 -
After Hours 2002 -
Irreplaceable 2004 -
Golden Legends Live 2004 -
Jazz After Hours with George Benson 2005 -
Best of George Benson 2005 Live

[edit] Samples

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Benson, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American singer-guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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