So when I met him, I asked him if he would teach me something and he said, “No.” He was the first guy who said no. They told me there was a guy who played guitar like nobody else, that he played with his fingers, but he actually played with his thumb - there was no pick in his hand. When Wes Montgomery came to Pittsburgh, I had to meet him, because I had heard about him when I was a little boy. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. “They’re right down your throat,” he said of playing the intimate club Ronnie Scott’s, where the set was recorded, “but I can look into their faces and see the happiness or the response by what they’re hearing on the bandstand.” Benson’s first live album in 30 years, due Friday, he not only honors his unique musical path, but also credits those along the way that have shaped him and his career - which includes audiences. It was a rare feat for a largely instrumental record to make the pop and R&B charts then, but critics still took umbrage with his early ascension into smooth jazz.
However, it was the release of his three-times-platinum 1976 album “Breezin’” that brought him his greatest commercial success and multiple Grammys. Benson collaborated with Freddie Hubbard and Minnie Riperton, and later with Mary J.
#BREEZIN GEORGE BENSON LIVE HOW TO#
“It had a lot of musicians there who were trying to prove themselves, trying to learn how to play.”
“Pittsburgh was the last big stop,” before headed to places like New York, Mr. Benson, then 7 or 8, to sing “I’ve Got the Blues.” In a recent phone interview, he recalled how Eddie Jefferson, the pioneer of vocalese who wrote jazz standards like “Moody’s Mood for Love,” recognized his own potential for vocals while performing on a street corner, and prompted Mr. He started out seven decades ago, playing the ukulele in his native Pittsburgh, home to a rich cornucopia of elite Black talent: Art Blakey, Lena Horne, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers. His career has been helped by an unwavering faith in his creative vision and bonds with influential figures that became pivotal to his development. The 77-year-old guitarist and singer has traversed the worlds of pop, R&B, soul and, of course, jazz, tasting success while also learning how to field any criticism that came from changing his sound along the way. Nobody has more succinctly described George Benson's musical evolution than the guitarist himself did in his 2014 autobiography: ".from blues cat to blues-jazz cat.from blues-jazz cat to jazz cat.from jazz cat to soul-jazz cat.and from soul-jazz cat to R&B-jazz cat.George Benson is many things to many different people, but he’s a jazz musician at heart. His wins include Record of the Year for "This Masquerade" (1977), Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Breezin'" (1977) and "Mornin'" (2007), Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "On Broadway" (1979) and "Give Me the Night" (1981), and Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "Theme From Good King Bad" (1977) and "Off Broadway" (1981) He's won a dynamic 10 Grammys, including record of the year for his triple platinum ‘Breezin’. The live shows will feature George Benson’s masterful guitar playing, and Benson and his band will perform his Greatest Hits from his impressive back catalogue - which includes such classics as Give Me The Night, Lady Love Me (One More Time), Turn Your Love Around, Inside Love, Never Give Up On A Good Thing and In Your Eyes and more…īenson is one of America's great guitarists, a virtuoso who's been honoured by the National Endowment of the Arts as a Jazz Master.
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