Sunday, July 30, 2006

Number 978 - George Benson


Number 978

George Benson

"Give Me The Night"

(1980)
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Genre:Jazz
"This is the peak of George Benson's courtship of the mass market -- a superbly crafted and performed pop album with a large supporting cast -- and wouldn't you know that Quincy Jones, the master catalyst, is the producer. Q's regular team, including the prolific songwriter Rod Temperton and the brilliant engineer Bruce Swedien, is in control, and Benson's voice, caught beautifully in the rich, floating sound, had never before been put to such versatile use. On "Moody's Mood," Benson really exercises his vocalese chops and proves that he is technically as fluid as just about any jazz vocalist, and he become a credible rival to Al Jarreau on the joyous title track. Benson's guitar now plays a subsidiary role -- only two of the ten tracks are instrumentals -- but Q has him play terrific fills behind the vocals and in the gaps, and the engineering gives his tone a variety of striking, new, full-sounding timbres. The instrumentals themselves are marvelous: "Off Broadway" is driving and danceable, and Ivan Lins' "Dinorah, Dinorah" grows increasingly seductive with each play. Benson should have worked with Jones from this point on, but this would be their only album together". ~ [Richard S. Ginell]
1980 is just so significant to me, musically anyway, when i go through my catalogue of 4000 songs that year of 1980 sticks out, it has the most recognisable songs........or was it me turning 15 years old? is that "the" snapshot of a persons life that stays with you?
I always tell everyone that music (songs) are like photographs. If i saw a picture of your Dad and said "that's horrible isn't it" you would be instantly offended, well music is like that too, ever loved a song and someone close to you has said it sounds like crap? It hurts in a quiet odd way.
So being 15 and the music of that year is probably pinnacle to me, it connects me to that time... just like a photograph does, or even as far to say the feeling of hearing the news that John Lennon died.

Snap....... a photo was taken.......for life
What does Rolling Stone think of George Benson? Benson’s sales have remained consistent, but his life hasn’t been without tumult. Becoming a Jehovah’s Witness in the early ’80s, he credited his conversion for his good fortune. However, one of his sons was killed in a 1991 bar fight. In 1988 CTI Records was awarded $3.2 million in a judgment against Warner Bros. Records; Warners, a jury ruled, owed the money in damages for breaching an agreement with Benson. During this period, Benson reaffirmed his jazz roots with live work with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Lionel Hampton. In 1989 Tenderly, with pianist McCoy Tyner, reached the #1 jazz spot; in 1990 Big Boss Band featured a vital partnership with the Count Basie Orchestra. In 1993 Benson, an eight-time Grammy winner, again proved his hitmaking currency when his Love Remembers supplanted Kenny G’s Breathless as the #1 Contemporary Jazz album. In 1998 his Standing Together featured MDRC, a band including Benson’s son Robert. The release incorporated Caribbean and hip-hop elements. [Source: from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)]
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at (Nope they hated it) and the Album ranked at Number (Nope, doesn't even know its out yet)

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