Octogenarian George Benson is still performing, having appeared at the Montreal Jazz Festival earlier this month. Once a premier jazz guitarist, (he played with Miles Davis after all) mostly through his many appearances as both a leader and sideman for CTI in the seventies, Benson’s association with Quincy Jones, took him down a similar road as Nat King Cole, morphing into a pop star in the late seventies and through the late eighties. Although the then 43-year-old Benson gradually returned to jazz shortly after this performance (perhaps thinking he couldn’t take this direction much further), he picked this concert from 1986 in Montreux, a festival that he’s appeared at eleven times, to showcase his artistry during the peak of his popularity. The DVD was first released in 2005 but this is the first time a double CD set is now available.
Earlier in his career, Benson was lauded for his smooth, bluesy, guitar chops but gradually developed into a vocalist in the decade preceding this performance. Jazz purists and many like this writer started to move away from Benson while he enjoyed this newfound success among the pop and R&B audiences. He, together with Grover Washington Jr., were the initial shapers of smooth jazz in a gradual shift, because the later CTI albums were already leaning in a smoother, more commercial jazz direction.
This set list is comprised of his hits from his two acclaimed Warner Brothers releases, the Grammy-winning 1978 Weekend in L.A. and 1980’s Give Me the Night. Benson fronts a ten-piece band – Steve Tavaglione (alto sax, flute, piccolo) Brandon Fields (tenor sax), Ralf Rickert (trumpet, flugelhorn), Stanley Banks (electric bass), Bubba Bryant (drums), Michael O’Neill (guitar, backing vocals), Barnaby Finch (keyboards), Vicki Randle (percussion, backing vocals), and David Garfield (piano).
Included in the setlist are his megahits – “On Broadway”, “Lady Love Me (One More Time)”, “In Your Eyes”, “Love X Love”, and “20/20”, to name a few. Throughout his career Benson has had much success with covers, none more so than Roberta Flack’s 1974 #1 hit “Feel Like Making Love,” which kicks off the set, and L.T.D.’s 1976 hit “Love Ballad,” which appears midway through the first CD.
Benson sings on 11 of the 15. The audience, like most at Montreux, are wildly enthusiastic and younger than a conventional jazz audience. Benson can do no wrong, whether it’s a vocal tune or a funky instrumental like the horn propelled 1980’s “Off Broadway.” Most are in the four-six-minute range, faithful to radio airplay with an extended, rousing version of “Love Ballad” and the set closer on CD2, “On Broadway.” He does, however, make room for soloists and announces each. Benson’s clean, breezy R&B guitar style is on fine display in “Weekend in L.A.” along with a glistening electric piano from Finch. Mentioning the word “breezy,” notably the hit that launched this side of Benson, “Breezin’” is not included.
Benson returns to vocals on “Lady Love Me (One More Time) with terrific harmonies from Randle. We do hear both sides of his artistry as evidenced by a very jazzy instrumental on Jose Feliciano’s “Affirmation” for instance. The sound throughout is superb, and the energy is contagious as exemplified by the band’s all-out assault in numbers such as “My Latin Brother” contrasted with an overly pop saturated “Beyond the Sea.”
On Disc 2 he is in a romantic ballad mode through “Love x Love,” “In Your Eyes,” and the big Whitney Houston hit, that he covered first, “The Greatest Love of All.” “20/20” is danceable R&B funk, that like others comes really alive in the DVD. When Benson sings wordless vocals in sync with his guitar, it’s to these ears more enjoyable than his straight-ahead pop vocals like on the following “Never Give Up on a Good Thing” and the punchy “Turn Your Love Around.” Perhaps the best example of such is the closing “On Broadway” where he and band leave the rhythmically clapping audience wanting more.
Though much of this sounds dated now, there’s no doubt Benson and his band gave it all and then some in this performance.
