George Benson’s waltz through over four decades of jazz, pop and R&B dominance is not just staggering, but a testament to a musician’s ability to retain and refine his sound. The singer/guitarist began his career as a successor to the work created by the great jazz guitar pioneer Wes Montgomery, but Benson created his own signature by combining a strong ear for the pop lick coupled with a sophisticated view of his voice and instrument.
Early peaks included 1968’s Shape of Things to Come and 1969’s _The Other Side of Abbey Road_—the former, a colossal step onto a scene that was overcrowded at the time, but would soon clear a wide and long path just for him, and the latter, a clever jazz interpretation of the Beatle’s classic album. By the early 70s, especially on the incredible collaboration on Beyond the Blue Horizon between the guitarist and a rhythm section consisting of Jack DeJohnette on drums and Ron Carter on bass, Benson was beginning to hit his stride before a key transitional period would arc the musician into superstardom.
As his career began to take off in the mid-70s, Benson also became a formidable singer, a breathtaking scat man, as well as a charismatic frontman on guitar, either spinning off beautifully languid and loose solos, or holding down a mean rhythm track as a bedrock. The next thirty years would see the man record numerous classic songs like “This Masquerade,” “On Broadway,” “Turn Your Love Around,” “Breezin’,” and “Give Me the Night,” as well as landmark albums which combined pop and R&B motifs into an inimitable George Benson trademark sound on Breezin’, Weekend in L.A., Give Me the Night, and Tenderly. His current work consolidates those strengths in an impressive way.
Jambands.com sits down with George Benson for a discussion of his new album Songs and Stories, which features numerous collaborations between the singer/guitarist and some of his favorite artists and composers over the years. Included on these twelve compositions are pieces specifically written for the album, and several choice covers selected by Benson and produced by Concord Record’s creative muse John Burk and legendary jazz figure, Marcus Miller in a wonderful reunion of seasoned talent.
Indeed, on the album, Rod Temperton wrote “Family Reunion,” and he was not only a key composer for Benson on “Give Me the Night,” but also worked with the late Michael Jackson on most of the pop icon’s Thriller tracks. Elsewhere, Benson duets with a young guitar prodigy Norman Brown who not only lives up to the challenge, but expertly shares the song with his vaunted predecessor. Not that anyone seems to be able to duplicate Benson or his influences. As he details on his discussion about working with the late Donny Hathaway, a talented yet troubled musician who passed away in 1979, and whose song “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” co-written with Ed Howard, is a subtle masterpiece on Songs and Stories, “just watching and listening to him sing was like going to school for vocalism—you know, a special school” Indeed, a brief class is in session, and Benson is still at the front of the class, clearly not yet ready to relinquish his post. Nor should he.
RR: Let’s talk about your new record Songs and Stories. I’ve been living with it for about two weeks now but you’ve certainly been living with it for a bit longer.
GB: Yeah, tweakin’ and all of that craziness and trying to get it right for release because we knew we had something nice, something special that would get a good response—at least we felt that way. There are a good variety of things, the composers we were looking for—among the best in the world—and great engineers and great musicians on the roster. My friends, taboot; buddies that have already given me smash records. It’s really a privilege to be on this particular recording. I think you can feel the camaraderie there.
RR: What’s amazing is how many different pieces are presented on the record, and yet your guitar and voice are the common element. You took each one of these songs, written by other composers, and applied your own signature sound on them. I wondered what you thought of that process?
GB: Yeah. Yeah. I think starting with the one song that we had done a few years ago down in Brazil, and I played it for the producer and said that it was a project that I had started in Brazil. He heard it and he said, “Man, we need to put this on this record.” I said, “You mean re-do it?” And he said, “No, let’s use what we’ve got.” So we put on Marcus Miller, and it was the only element with put on the James Taylor song [“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”] and it worked out fantastic. That’s all it needed so less was more, and it worked out. It fit into the album so nicely and it’s a great way to start the album off—a classic song done slightly different, but showing all of the respect that was due to the original version.
RR: I like that word “respect” as you’re using your own trademark and style, but there is respect paid to the original recordings on these dozen tracks.
GB: Yeah, I think it’s important to have your own vibe on it, but I also like to pay homage to the original because that’s what made it so attractive to the world. The original version of that is a classic, and we certainly don’t want to take away from that. We want to show a different side of it, a different possibility. That, with my own guitar solo, gave it its own space there.
RR: And right after that opening track, there is another significant song in many ways called “Family Reunion,” which has its own story.
GB: That’s a great one because it was written by Rod Temperton who writes great songs. I was after him for about two years to get that song. He played it for me one year. I said, “Well, when am I going to get it?” He said, “Well, I’m tweakin’ it. I’m only in Los Angeles in September every year,” so I remembered that. And when he came back the next year, I said, “Where’s that song, man? I just remembered that it had the word “family” in it.” He said, “Yeah, it’s called “Family Reunion”.” I said, “Where is it?” (laughter) And he sent it over, and I was sure glad that he hadn’t given it away because, you know, he records a lot of people, he produces records, and writes songs for many different artists.
RR: Sure, but you’re not someone that he is going to easily forget.
GB: No. No. Rod is a very intense fellow and he’s very…_emotional_ about his material. I think he likes to get involved. His most successful tunes are ones where he’s involved in the production of it. That’s why it stays on track, and his original concept doesn’t get lost; so I stayed pretty much in the groove even though he wasn’t there. I tried to pretend that he was there, and do something that he would be proud of. Working with him with Quincy Jones was pretty tough because he’s a demanding fellow just like Quincy is—a perfectionist (laughs)—so it was pretty tough.
RR: The duet “A Telephone Call Away” is a wonderful song by Bill Withers.
GB: Yeah, he’s a great composer. I keep thinking about all of those songs, significant titles, and stories that he has in his songs like “Grandma’s Hand” and things like that. “Ain’t No Sunshine.” (laughter) “Just the Two of Us.” He’s been a real important part of American music over the last 30 years. And he’s also my friend. We went on the road together a few years ago. When he stopped touring, it was a drag because I enjoyed him. He’s a different kind of fellow. He’s intense and an honest, straight-ahead kind of guy. He’s a no nonsense kind of guy so when we went to him to ask him to write something for us, he said, “You know I don’t do no writing anymore, George. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to write anything now.” I said to myself, “What?”
We had a nice brunch and we laughed a lot and that was the end of that. He said, “If something happens, I’ll give you a call.” And then he called a few months later, and came up with this different song. I knew it was going to be different, but I didn’t know it was going to be this different. (laughter) It was great.
RR: Lalah Hathaway is great, as well, on co-lead vocals with you on that song.
GB: Oh, yeah. She really put a number on that song. She added a color and flavor to it that really made it, I think, so interesting. It took it to another place. I’m so grateful that we were able to get her. We were thinking of a lot of different people to do that. We finally settled on her, and we knew we made the right choice when we heard her sing. She’s got just an incredible approach.
RR: A duet of a different texture is found on “Nuthin’ But a Party,” which featured a guitar duet with Norman Brown.
GB: Oh, yeah, man. That young fellow is always giving me credit for sparking his career. He’s one of those rare birds that does that because not everybody will. Not everybody will say, “Hey, man, I learned to play listening to your music.” That’s just the way it is.
Anybody asking him, he’ll tell them the same thing. “Yep, I learned to play listening to George Benson’s music.”
When I met him, I met a genuine fellow—a great musician who don’t need to take a back seat to anybody, but he always takes the lower road. He comes very humble until he picks up that guitar and the boldness comes out. (laughs) I enjoyed making this record with him. I knew it was something that people probably wanted to hear because there was so much controversy about the two of us—him coming in and making his statement loud and clear on the guitar: “I’m coming through here, people! Check me out!” He’s made quite a mark for himself.
And he did the same thing on this record. Without turning it into a contest, we had fun with it. And yet, we got a chance to show that we weren’t just throwin’ some notes on a record. We were turning into a nice jam session. It worked really nicely.
RR: I have to say that “Someday We’ll All Be Free” may be my favorite cut. It’s a very emotional experience for me when I hear the words and music on that track.
GB: Yeah. Thank you very very much. Well, I got a chance to play some and sing some. Donny Hathaway and I used to try writing songs together. As a matter of fact, he recorded one of my songs. It never came out on an album because he passed away before they got around to that. Yeah, I used to go down to his apartment and just be mesmerized at how effortlessly he would approach a song. This was before my career got off the ground as a vocalist. Even though I had been a singer all my life, as a kid, I had not done a lot of that up to that time. Just watching and listening to him sing was like going to school for vocalism—you know, a special school. (laughs) He was my buddy, man, and I was one of his biggest fans. It was quite an experience to do this song. It’s difficult because people think that song is easy, but it is not an easy song to do.
RR: Speaking of difficulty, “Living in High Definition” takes the listener (well, at least me) to many different locations via a multi-textured song.
GB: (laughs) Well, when we were looking for songs, and they sent me this song by Lamont Dozier, I heard it and I said, “Uhh…what is this? What kind of song is this? I’ve never heard anything like this in my life. What am I supposed to do with it?” (laughter) Because, you know, there was nothing hard about it—the melodies are pretty straightforward—but it’s almost like a march of some kind, an anthem. [Benson sings the melody] I thought, “O.K.—it sounds like he was practicing for a minute and said, “I’m going to hang with this melody and see what I can get out of it.”
But then, it went to another place. The second part of the tune that I call the B section really makes a statement, and goes through some wonderful cascades of colors and harmonies and raises it to another level.
I’ll tell you the guy who made all the difference in the world on that: Wah Wah Watson. He begged me to let him have that song. He said, “Man, if you give me that song, you’re gonna like what you hear when I bring it back.” I said, “_Well_…cause if it don’t sound like nothin’, I’m erasing it. I’ll erase all your stuff off. (laughter) With that, as long as you know that, and you’ve got that understanding, you’ve got it.” When it came back, it was so tastefully done, and so lighthearted that I said, “Wow—that’s pretty interesting. Let me go back and re-examine what I put on it.” So I added a little vocal section where I just come in and do those little ad-libs. We only did it one time for an effect more than anything else [Benson scats the part to the writer which is like Shakespeare reciting one of his sonnets if one has grown up listening to the man’s legendary records.].That thing at the end—you’ve got the album version, right?
RR: Yeah.
GB: That thing at the end, which all my guys call “the Cookie Monster rap,” that I do on the very end of it? (laughter) That scratchy sound way up (laughs), and I’m playing my guitar underneath—that was an experiment. I mean—it wasn’t great, but what happened with it was it’s different, and I said, “For that reason alone, let’s leave it on there.”
They didn’t want to do it at first. They said, “George, I know you’re just kidding around.” I said, “Well, I am, but I’m experimenting. If it ain’t hurtin’ nothin’…” After we listened to it two or three times, we got used to it, and said, “It ain’t hurtin’ nothin’, let’s try it.” (laughter)
RR: Indeed. You’ve been at an artistic peak for so long that I was wondering what continues to inspire you at this point of your career?
GB: I keep checking back with young people, man, because they’re the ones who are benefiting by what’s going on. They have their own concept of what the world is going to be like tomorrow. And every time I check with them, they come up with something different. (laughs) I thought we had covered everything. These kids, man…these young people keep reinventing music. They take all of our old stuff and sample it and put some curly cues on it, back it up, and play it backwards…you know…(laughter)…I think that’s quite interesting, man. They keep reminding us of two great elements: feel good and sound good are still in effect. It’s got to feel good and sound good and then, you’ve got the makings of an interesting record. The rest of it depends on what that story is. You put a story with that that they like, and you’re on your way.
_- Randy Ray stores his work at www.rmrcompany.blogspot.com
