Two years later, Hammond would have him recording for Columbia Records with those muted sales expectations. In 1964, he made his first album as a leader, “New Boss Guitar,” with McDuff providing support. “He thought the singer steals the spotlight from the band.” “McDuff wouldn’t tolerate singing in his band,” he says. A guitarist! That made me enjoy something I’d never enjoyed before: practicing for hours and hours.”īenson at the time kept his singing to himself. And I remember reading an article, a critique of one of our pieces, and the writer called me a guitarist.
But when I realized what he was trying to accomplish, something magical happened. That put a lot of strain on me, and I had to use my ears to decipher what he was talking about. “He’d reconfigure the harmonies to make the group sound bigger. “He wanted to make his small groups sound like the Count Basie Orchestra,” Benson says. Benson describes that time as the first of his great transformative periods, learning under McDuff, who was nearly 20 years older. At 19, he was hired to play in a band run by jazz organist “Brother” Jack McDuff. By 17, he was playing jam sessions and gigs. Those two performers had a profound influence on “Little Georgie” Benson, a child prodigy from Pittsburgh who made his first recordings at age 9. Last year he released “Walking to New Orleans,” which found him covering some of his favorite songs by Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Sometime I still swear I’m in the middle of a dream.” ‘What happened?’ I have talked a lot about retirement, but I do still love doing it.
And I see the money coming in and think, ‘I can’t retire this year.’ Then 10 years slips by. “I’ve been saying I’m retiring for 30 years now,” he says.
The record is the latest failure in Benson’s efforts to retire. “The audience gives its vibe back to you quickly when they’re right in front of you,” he says. And the slick album that comes from it is his first live recording of vocal music since “Weekend in L.A.” 42 years ago. The show was his first at the venue in 45 years. The audience in this case was a fortunate few: Benson recorded at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, far cozier confines than he’s grown accustomed to over the years. If things go downhill, you play a hot one.” No retirement plans And it gives you the opportunity to feel out an audience. “This is the way we like to do it,” Benson says. Guitar heads have ample opportunity to hear him play beautifully on the record, and those who love his vocal hits will find many of their favorites in a set that speaks to the attributes of his band, which allows him space to play the melody of each song with ample room for improvisation around it. Your commercial stuff ain’t nothing, man.’ Well, I wanted to do something different.”īenson, 77, this week releases “Weekend in London,” a startling live album that draws from throughout his successful career with an emphasis on the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, when Benson slipped away from jazz for great success as a pop/R&B singer and guitarist. He slips into a grumbling caricature of a voice. So Benson heard plenty of complaints over the years.
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