Breezin' George Benson

• 1 Breezin' 05:43
• 2 This Masquerade 08:04
• 3 Six To Four 05:13
• 4 Affirmation 07:01
• 5 So This Is Love? 07:06
• 6 Lady 05:58
• Total Runtime 39:05

Info for Breezin'

Benson earned his reputation as a superior jazz guitarist through his partnership with soul/jazz organist Brother Jack McDuff. Breezin' album Several solo albums for the CTI label ensued before a switch to the giant Warner Brothers resulted in extraordinary chart success with this release. Benson's remake of the title track, originally a hit for fellow guitarist Gabor Szabo, set the tone for the entire set wherein mellifluous funk underscores the artist's sweet voice and soft-touch technique. Like Nat 'King' Cole before him, Benson left jazz to court a wider audience and with Breezin' he did so with considerable aplomb.

'Leon Russell's 'This Masquerade,' the only cut on which Benson sings, features fine scatting on top of the guitar part and an interpretation that pleasantly apes Stevie Wonder. If the success of Breezin' tells us very little about the state of jazz, it indicates a great deal about present influences on the popular mainstream. Here is a comfortable but sophisticated jazz, R&B and MOR blend, whose light romantic style ultimately derives from and dilutes the spirit of Stevie Wonder's ballads.' (Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone, 11/4/76)

'Start your day in the right mood and breeze on through the afternoon with this mellow master's pop crossover, a pivotal album in mainstreaming jazz. Though people knew the man could play, most didn't know he could sing, but this disc convinced them. A showcase for Benson's singular guitar talent and flirtatious vocals, it combines quiet fire and smooth soul in one fabulous package of light hits.' (Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003)

George Benson, vocals, guitar
Jorge Dalto, acoustic & electric pianos
Ronnie Foster, electric piano, Minimoog synthesizer
Phil Upchurch, guitar, bass
Stanley Banks, bass
Harvey Mason, drums
Ralph MacDonald, percussion

Producer: Tommy LiPuma.
Reissue producers: David McLees, Patrick Milligan.
Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California from January 6-8, 1976. Includes liner notes by Al Young and A. Scott Galloway.
Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California from January 6-8, 1976. Includes liner notes by Al Young.

Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot.

Awards: Triple-platinum album, 1976

Born on March 22, 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Benson showed prodigious talent from an early age, winning a singing contest when he was only four years old and enjoying a short career as a child radio performer under the name of “Little Georgie Benson.” He started playing the guitar when he was eight, but it was as a vocalist that he spent much of his vast musical energy as a teenager, organizing and performing with a succession of rhythm-and-blues and rock bands around Pittsburgh. He made recordings for RCA Victor’s X Records subsidiary in the middle 1950s. But Benson’s stepfather encouraged his instrumental efforts by constructing a guitar for him, and in his late teens he began to concentrate exclusively on guitar. Seeking out the music of modern jazz’s golden age, he became more and more interested in jazz, and was particularly inspired by recordings of saxophonist Charlie Parker and guitarists Charlie Christian and Grant Green.

Discovered by John Hammond: In 1961 Benson jumped to the national stage when he joined the group backing jazz organist Jack McDuff. He played and recorded with McDuff for four years. Then he struck out on his own: he moved to New York City, then the capital of the jazz universe, and formed his own band. There Benson made two acquaintances who proved crucial in setting him on the path to jazz stardom: guitarist Wes Montgomery, whose soft tone and graceful octave playing provided Benson with his most important stylistic inspiration, and Columbia Records producer and executive John Hammond, whose unerring eye for talent brought

This album contains no booklet.