George Benson

This article is about the musician George Benson. For the politician see George Hikah Benson , for the jazz saxophonist of the same name see George Benson (saxophonist) .

George Benson, 2009

George Benson (* 22. March 1943 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) is an American jazz - and fusion - guitarist and singer . He celebrated his greatest commercial success in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he changed his style towards soul , disco and pop . During those years he won eight Grammys and two more followed in 2007. His biggest hits include This Masquerade (1976), On Broadway (1978), Give Me the Night (1980) and Turn Your Love Around (1981), which the Reached the top 10 of the American singles chart.

Life

Benson began his musical career at the age of eight when he appeared as a singer in nightclubs. In 1960 he formed a rock band in which he played guitar and sang. As early as 1964 he made his first recordings with "Brother" Jack McDuff (The New Boss Guitar).

Influenced by Charlie Christian and especially Wes Montgomery , he came to jazz in the mid-1960s. He played with greats like Miles Davis (album: Miles in the Sky ) or as a sideman for Lou Donaldson and developed into a recognized jazz guitarist. He took early 1970s a number of high plates with strong radio influence for Creed Taylor's CTI - label on, before moving to Warner Brothers in 1976 and with the vocal track This Masquerade from the plate Breezin ' landed a Millionenhit. After the album and the title of the same name contained on it, he named his own jazz club "Breezin Lounge" in Harlem at the end of the 1970s .

In the further course of his career, he released a number of often formulaic jazz, pop and soul records, with which he continued this commercial success. He was successful in 1979 with the song On Broadway , which was heard in the film All That Jazz ( Behind the Spotlight ). His two biggest hits Give Me the Night (1980) and Turn Your Love Around (1981) were influenced by the disco style of those years and reached the top 5 of the American pop charts. In addition, these songs also placed high on the R&B , disco and adult contemporary hit lists. His record in the R&B charts is particularly impressive: He scored over 25 hits here.

Benson also appears again and again as a virtuoso jazz guitarist. In addition to his special solo style, his unison scat singing accompanied by his solos is characteristic of him. On March 9, 1995 , Benson appeared as a musical guest on an aftershow by Prince at the Astoria in London.

For 2009 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship .

In an interview by Time magazine with the "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin in 2010, when asked what her most memorable collaboration was, she answered with the name "George Benson". The duet Love All the Hurt Away had reached the top 10 of the American R&B charts in 1981.

George Benson is an avowed Jehovah's Witness .

Guitar types used

As a jazz guitarist, Benson played and still plays mainly on full resonance guitars and .012- inch steel strings with flat-wire wrapping ( flatwounds ). At first he played with Gibson models, which can also be seen on the “ Gibson Super 400 ” on the album cover of “George Benson and Jack McDuff”, until his cooperation with the Japanese manufacturer Ibanez began in the mid-1970s. Ibanez built the full resonance guitar for him, marketed as the GB-10 in 1978, which had a slimmer body than the previous jazz guitars. Later came the more voluminous GB-20 and then the GB-30. The difference between the models was, among other things, that the GB-10 had two so-called floating mini humbucker pickups , the GB-20 one full-size humbucker and a larger body and finally the GB-30 two full-size humbuckers and a semi-resonance body according to Gibson ES-335 prototype. For the twelfth anniversary of their collaboration, Ibanez built the GB-12 in 1990. It was a GB-10 with a deeper body and more elaborate inlays in the fingerboard and headstock. In addition, the top , sides and back were made of bar maple . Nowadays, in addition to the now classic GB-10, the variants GB-15 and GB-200 are offered. All Benson models have a scale length of 24.75 inches (628 mm). Benson was one of the first jazz guitarists to help a Japanese manufacturer gain a reputation among like-minded people during the times of Gibson dominance.

Discography

→ Main article : George Benson / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)							Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B	jazz
1969	Shape of Things to Come	-	-	-	-	-	R&B38 (2 weeks) R&B	-	First published: April 1969 Producer: Creed Taylor
	Tell It Like It Is	-	-	-	-	US145 (3 weeks) US	R&B43 (3 weeks) R&B	-	First published: July 1969 Producer: Creed Taylor
1974	Bad Benson	-	-	-	-	US78 (19 weeks) US	-	-	First published: October 1974 Producer: Creed Taylor
1976	Breezin '	-	-	-	UK- silver UK	US1 × 3 Triple platinum (78 weeks)US	R&B1 (46 weeks) R&B	-	First release: April 1976 Grammy (Instrumental Pop) Producers: Tommy LiPuma , Noel Newbolt
	Good King Bad	-	-	-	-	US51 (16 weeks) US	R&B18 (18 weeks) R&B	-	First published: June 1976 Producer: Creed Taylor
	Benson & Farrell	-	-	-	-	US100 (8 weeks) US	R&B27 (8 weeks) R&B	-	First published: October 1976 with Joe Farrell Producer: Creed Taylor
	The Other Side of Abbey Road	-	-	-	-	US125 (8 weeks) US	-	-	First release: June 1970 Re-release: July 1976 Producer: Creed Taylor
1977	In flight	-	AT21 (4 weeks) AT	-	UK19th silver (23 weeks)UK	US9 platinum (35 weeks)US	R&B2 (28 weeks) R&B	-	First published: January 1977 Producers: Tommy LiPuma, Noel Newbolt
1979	Livin 'Inside Your Love (Double Album)	-	-	-	UK24 (14 weeks) UK	US7th gold (26 weeks)US	R&B4 (26 weeks) R&B	-	First published: March 1979 Producer: Tommy LiPuma
1980	Give me the night	-	-	-	UK3 platinum (40 weeks)UK	US3 platinum (38 weeks)US	R&B1 (37 weeks) R&B	-	First published: July 1980 Producer: Quincy Jones
1983	In your eyes	DE42 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 platinum (53 weeks)UK	US27 gold (35 weeks)US	R&B6 (33 weeks) R&B	jazz1 (... week) jazz	First published: June 1983 Producer: Arif Mardin
1985	20/20	DE40 (7 weeks) DE	AT29 (2 weeks) AT	CH24 (5 weeks) CH	UK9 gold (19 weeks)UK	US45 gold (32 weeks)US	R&B20 (24 weeks) R&B	jazz3 (47 weeks) jazz	First published: January 1985 Producers: Russ Titelman , Michael Masser
1986	While the City Sleeps ...	DE48 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK13 gold (27 weeks)UK	US77 (24 weeks) US	R&B21 (27 weeks) R&B	jazz8 (21 weeks) jazz	First published: September 1986 Producers: Narada Michael Walden , Robbie Buchanan, Tommy LiPuma
1987	Collaboration	-	-	CH22 (2 weeks) CH	UK47 (6 weeks) UK	US59 gold (31 weeks)US	R&B28 (22 weeks) R&B	-	First published: June 1987 with Earl Klugh Producer: Tommy LiPuma
1988	Twice the love	DE35 (6 weeks) DE	-	CH29 (1 week) CH	UK16 silver (10 weeks)UK	US76 (10 weeks) US	R&B17 (26 weeks) R&B	-	First released September 6, 1988 Producers: Preston Glass, Jay Graydon, Tommy LiPuma, Dennis Lambert, David Lewis, Wayne Lewis, George Benson, Barry J. Eastmond, Wayne Brathwaite
1989	Tenderly	-	AT26 (2 weeks) AT	-	UK52 (3 weeks) UK	US140 (6 weeks) US	-	jazz1 (29 weeks) jazz	First published: July 1989 Producer: Tommy LiPuma
1990	Big Boss Band	-	-	-	-	-	-	jazz3 (17 weeks) jazz	First release: October 1990 feat. Count Basie Orchestra Producer: George Benson
1993	Love Remembers	DE- gold DE	-	-	-	-	R&B50 (23 weeks) R&B	-	First published: June 1993 Producers: Bob James, Charlie Wallert, David Gamson, Gary Henry, George Benson, Jimmy George, Stewart Levine
1996	That's right	-	-	-	UK61 (2 weeks) UK	US150 (10 weeks) US	R&B33 (20 weeks) R&B	-	First published: June 1996 Producers: Ricky Peterson, Tommy LiPuma, Joe Mardin, Jean-Paul Maunick , Robbie Buchanan
1998	Standing Together	-	-	-	-	-	R&B47 (17 weeks) R&B	-	First published: June 1998 Producers: Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez , Little Louie Vega, Paul Brown
2000	Absolute Benson	-	-	-	UK77 (1 week) UK	US125 (3 weeks) US	R&B24 (11 weeks) R&B	-	First published: May 2000 Producers: Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, Louie Vega, Tommy LiPuma
2004	Irreplaceable	-	-	-	UK58 (2 weeks) UK	US195 (1 week) US	R&B22 (10 weeks) R&B	jazz3 (36 weeks) jazz	First published: January 2004 Producers: Hakim Bell, Joe Thomas, Joshua Paul Thompson, William Irving
2006	Givin 'It Up	DE59 (5 weeks) DE	AT30 (5 weeks) AT	-	-	US58 (7 weeks) US	R&B14 (20 weeks) R&B	jazz1 (75 weeks) jazz	First published: October 24, 2006 with Al Jarreau Producers: John Burk, Michael Broening, Freddie Ravel
2009	Songs and Stories	-	-	-	-	US96 (3 weeks) US	R&B15 (10 weeks) R&B	jazz1 (44 weeks) jazz	First published: August 25, 2009 Producers: Marcus Miller , Forest Sprague, Michael O'Neill, Toninho Horta , John Burk
2011	Guitar Man	-	-	-	-	US195 (1 week) US	-	jazz1 (36 weeks) jazz	First published: October 4th, 2011 Producer: John Burk
2013	Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole	-	-	-	UK80 (1 week) UK	US89 (1 week) US	-	jazz4 (17 weeks) jazz	First published: June 4th, 2013 Producers: John Burk, Randy Waldman
2019	Walking to New Orleans	-	AT70 (1 week) AT	-	-	-	-	-	First published: April 26, 2019

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

literature

• Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul . 3rd revised edition, St. Martin's Press, New York City, New York 1989, pp. 47-50, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 .

swell

1. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top R&B Singles 1942-1995. 1996, ISBN 0-89820-115-2
2. ↑ Goldgitarre, Silberstimme in FAZ of March 18, 2013, page 32
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k234-9ftkM8 ; from the 2nd minute
4. ↑ I don't care about the critics - Interview in the Badische Zeitung
5. ↑ 0.012 - 0.057 inch Thomastik-Infeld
6. ↑ Chart sources: Chartsurfer DE UK US
7. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .

Web links

Commons : George Benson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Biography, discography and news at JazzEcho
• Biography by NEA ( memento from August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• George Benson at Allmusic (English)
• George Benson at Discogs (English)