Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
The Essence of Emily
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
George Benson’s latest album was recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s in London.
(Photo: Carl Hyde)He also demonstrates his guitar skills. Brilliant fills and flourishes populate “In Your Eyes” and “Love Ballad.” High-octane octaves turn up the heat in a vamp that closes “Give Me The Night,” while a rubato opening cools things down on the instrumental “Affirmation” (from Breezin’). On “The Ghetto,” Donny Hathaway’s 1970 manifesto of social relevance, Benson invokes language of the period that excited Scofield back in the day.
Providing the settings is music director and keyboardist Randy Waldman, whose airtight arrangements are executed by Stanley Banks (bass), Thom Hall (keyboards), Michael O’Neill (guitar and vocals), Khari Parker (drums) and Lilliana de los Reyes (percussion and vocals).
Banks, who has played with Benson since 1975, said the guitarist was, within limits, flexible when it came to his demands on band members: “He’s going to give you all the room you need, except when he needs to hear a certain thing. More than anything else, he’ll ask you for conviction.”
Beyond asking for conviction, Benson professed a generally laissez-faire attitude toward the band, preferring to allow their creative juices to flow unimpeded. He asserted, for example, that he had little input into O’Neill and de los Reyes’ onstage use of digital tools that add layers to their vocals.
“I don’t mess with them,” Benson said, “because I like to hear something slightly different. It gives me ideas, so I leave them alone.”
“He’s super loose,” said Waldman, who has been with Benson on and off since the 1980s and backed other singers. “He’s one of the only artists I’ve ever worked with where, as you’re walking onstage, you simply have no idea of the first song you’re going to play. He’s so in the moment. We just know that at a place like [Ronnie Scott’s], we’re probably going to lean more toward jazz.”
Sometimes a venue’s audience can confound expectations. That, Waldman said, is what happened one year at the Montreux Jazz Festival: “We started with ‘Take Five’ or something. The audience started screaming for [Benson’s 1978 pop hit] ‘On Broadway.’”
Knowing whether to lean toward the jazz side or the pop side, Waldman said, had been a career issue for Benson: “It’s almost a problem—he’s too good at playing guitar and singing. When you say the name George Benson, a lot of people think of him either as a pop singer or a great jazz guitar player or a smooth-jazz artist. Most people can’t get a handle on that.”
Banks recalled the opprobrium some critics directed at Benson for supposedly abandoning his jazz roots after “This Masquerade” hit the charts, and he was suddenly fighting off fans and jumping into limousines.
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
“If you don’t keep learning, your mind slows down,” Coleman says. “Use it or lose it.”
Jan 28, 2025 11:38 AM
PolyTropos/Of Many Turns — the title for Steve Coleman’s latest recording on Pi and his 33rd album overall —…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
