{"id":20143,"date":"2020-12-08T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20143"},"modified":"2020-11-12T15:44:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T20:44:02","slug":"album-review-george-benson-weekend-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/08\/album-review-george-benson-weekend-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: George Benson \u2013 Weekend in London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20137 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/george_benson_london.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/george_benson_london.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/george_benson_london-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/george_benson_london-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>As the emcee tells us right up front, this recording marks the first time George Benson appeared onstage at Ronnie Scott\u2019s in some 45 years. In the interim he has built upon the success of 1976\u2019s breakthrough <i>Breezin\u2019<\/i>, following it up with more than 20 studio albums, countless tours, and the launch of a GB Signature guitar series from Ibanez. The NEA awarded him its highest honor, Jazz Master, in 2009. Along the way, he found the time to play on the recordings of many other artists, including \u2013 most unusually and notably \u2013 Gorillaz\u2019s 2018 single, \u201cHumility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Weekend in London<\/i> certainly isn\u2019t Benson\u2019s first live album, but it is his first since 2007\u2019s <i>Live from Montreux<\/i> (recorded in 1986). And his London set includes some of the songs one would expect: \u201cGive Me the Night,\u201d \u201cTurn Your Love Around,\u201d \u201cLove X Love\u201d and so on. It\u2019s something of a return to (or continuation of, if you prefer) classic form, with Benson alternating between his relentlessly melodic and fluid guitar playing and his assured, cool vocal work.<\/p>\n<p>The guitarist is ably supported by a crack band, a well-oiled musical machine that includes two keyboardists (Thom Hall and Randy Waldman), bassist Stanley Banks, second guitarist Michael O\u2019Neill and Khari Parker on drums. Lilliana de los Reyes handles percussion and backing vocals. Occasional keyboard-generated \u201chorn\u201d charts give the proceedings a sterile feel, but Benson\u2019s warm guitar tones more than redeem things.<\/p>\n<p>The package notes credit three \u201cadditional\u201d backing vocalists; it\u2019s not clear if that trio was part of the Ronnie Scott\u2019s performance or post-show studio sweetening, but the mention of \u201cadditional recording\u201d in an Arizona studio suggests it\u2019s likely. No matter: any fixes that were added don\u2019t take away from the live feel of the recording.<\/p>\n<p>Benson has long since passed the point where jazz purists carping about his departure from his soul jazz roots makes any difference. He found his biggest (commercial) success once he started singing and moved toward a more pop-oriented style, and that all happened well more than four decades ago. <em>Weekend in London<\/em> celebrates that musical pivot, and for fans of the style, it\u2019s a tasty treat indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the emcee tells us right up front, this recording marks the first time George Benson appeared onstage at Ronnie Scott\u2019s in some 45 years. In the interim he has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,51,65],"tags":[4387],"class_list":["post-20143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-george-benson","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20144,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20143\/revisions\/20144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}