Before Broadway: George Benson in the 1960s

From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz
Length: 58:56

An hour-long program of classic jazz, featuring the 1960s jazz-guitar recordings of George Benson. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Promos

Playing: Before Broadway: George Benson in the 1960s
From: WFIU

84604f09b659a82d5be6d5fce151e797_small In the 1970s George Benson became a crossover star with vocal hits and a smooth-sounding pop-R and B style, but years before that he'd already established a legacy as a jazz guitarist who brimmed with energy and talent. "Before Broadway" features Benson as a leader and with organists Brother Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith in straightahead, hard-cooking soul-jazz settings from the 1960s, as well as his interpretation of Miles Davis' "So What" from his standout 1971 CTI jazz album Beyond the Blue Horizon. Jazz critic Gary Giddins describes Benson's playing from this era as filled with "lean, hungry dissonances, offhanded energy, whistling articulation, and arpeggiated flourishes."

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Piece Description

In the 1970s George Benson became a crossover star with vocal hits and a smooth-sounding pop-R and B style, but years before that he'd already established a legacy as a jazz guitarist who brimmed with energy and talent. "Before Broadway" features Benson as a leader and with organists Brother Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith in straightahead, hard-cooking soul-jazz settings from the 1960s, as well as his interpretation of Miles Davis' "So What" from his standout 1971 CTI jazz album Beyond the Blue Horizon. Jazz critic Gary Giddins describes Benson's playing from this era as filled with "lean, hungry dissonances, offhanded energy, whistling articulation, and arpeggiated flourishes."