October 18, 2006
Interviewed by Mary Bentley
In the world of smooth and contemporary jazz, you can’t
talk guitar and not mention the name George Benson. With
a 40+ year career, and eight Grammy’s, he continues to
be at the top of his game, making great music for his fans, and
setting the standard for his peers. SmoothViews was thrilled
to chat with this guitar icon about his most recent album, a
duet project with Al Jarreau, Givin’ It Up.
SmoothViews (SV): Givin’ It Up is about to
be released (last month on October 24), and I know there’s
a lot of anticipation as a result of the tour that took place
during the summer and from people in the industry who have
already heard the album. You must be very excited about
this project.
George Benson (GB): Definitely. This
was one that we knew was going to happen one day, but time
has a way of just moving. It doesn’t wait on anybody,
so I’m glad we finally got into this at this particular
time in our careers. We both have been on the road, doing
our own thing, moving and crisscrossing for so many years. There’s
no way you can really measure it until somebody stops you and
says “Hey George, when are we going to do this album
with you and Al Jarreau?” So, this was a good time.
SV: I saw the show at Wolf Trap over the summer. It
was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. Will there
be anymore touring in the future to support this project?
GB: Oh, no doubt there will be more tour dates. We
haven’t set anything up yet. That will be the easy
part.
SV: You reworked “Breezin’”and “Mornin’”on
this album. Between you and Al Jarreau, these are probably
two of your more popular songs. Was it risky to revisit
songs that people know and love and are so established?
GB: It could be, but I think in our case,
no. People know that we’re versatile and can turn
a song inside out and flip it over backwards and do things
with it. We just wanted to show what it meant for us
to be the same room together, and if we decided to take a song,
no matter what it is, that we could do something with it, and
give it a different vibe, that sort of thing. Al’s
song was not necessarily meant to be an instrumental, and “Breezin’” was
not necessarily meant to be a vocal, so it shows our versatility.
SV: Yes it does, but do you know what I think also
makes it work? People know your music and Al Jarreau’s
music, and they trust your talents and your abilities. They
trust what you do, so when you do something like what you
did with “Breezin” and “Mornin,’”they
feel it’s in good hands.
GB: Well, I think that a lot of what you said
is true. It’s interesting – you said what
another friend of mine said to me the other day. “Isn’t
it risky that you would do something like that?” I
said, no, because those songs are classics, and classic is
not diminished by us doing this because we did completely different
versions. Now, if we had tried to repeat those songs
at this stage in our careers, they’d have something to
compare it to. But you can’t compare these versions
with the originals because it’s not the same approach – just
inklings and reminiscences of what these songs were, but different
approaches.
SV: How long have you and Al Jarreau known each
other?
GB: Since the mid-70s. We’ve been
around a long time. We signed with Warner Brothers back
then, and we did a showcase together. That’s the
first time I’d ever met Al Jarreau. That was an
incredible day. We did the showcase. Al did “Take
Five,” and I did “Take Five.” I did
it as an instrumental and he did it as a vocal. I couldn’t
believe how he was articulating through those very difficult
lines, so he made an impression right from the start and I
never forgot that.
SV: So you said that this was the time to come together
and do this?
GB: I think later things would have been missing. The
energy level might have been different. Right now, it’s
at a place where energy does play a part, but it’s more
about flavor and personality as opposed to all of that energy
stuff which all young people are just born with. It exudes
from you when you’re young. As a matter of fact,
that’s mostly what you are – a batch of bubbling
energy. But when you add some experience with that, and
texture, now the people know our personalities. We don’t
have to force our personalities on people. They know
it instantly when they hear it. That makes our task a
little bit easier. We can concentrate on variety more
than anything else.
SV: I’ve been listening to the album and I’m
really enjoying it. The song selection is very diverse. They’re
not songs that you ordinarily hear covered. How was
it that you chose some of these songs? They work so
well with both of your musical styles.
GB: I would suggest certain things and then
Al would suggest. When I suggested us doing Seals & Croft’s “Summer
Breeze,” Al said, “Man, why would you want to do
that?” And I said, because I think your character
separates you from the rest of the world, and I think that
since nobody has heard that song with your character on it,
it would have some meaning, depending on what we did with it. But
we didn’t want to destroy it by overdoing it, so we just
left it intact and let our colors show through on it more than
anything else.
SV: And it’s good. It works. It’s
one of my favorites, besides “Four.”
GB: Thank you. That is quite interesting,
isn’t it? Miles Davis would have loved that!
SV: You’ve got a whole host of people working
on this album (Marion Meadows, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke,
Patti Austin, Jill Scott, Sir Paul McCartney, Freddie Ravel,
Herbie Hancock, Patrice Rushen, Chris Botti, and the list
goes on.) They’re all very recognizable names
and very talented people. How was it working with
them, and had you worked with any of them previously?
GB: I knew all of them. Herbie Hancock
and I have done some really important things. Some of
his best work was on my records. He was on White
Rabbit years ago. Also, I love Stanley
Clarke on the upright bass. He said he hadn’t played
it in 15 years. He said, “It’s been in my
closet for 15 years.” I said, get it out man and
bring it over here because I love you on that. He’s
amazing on that instrument. I love him on the upright
bass. He’s got such an even sound and good rhythm,
like Paul Chambers used to play. He’s got a nice
pumping sound that shows up without even trying hard. I
like that.
SV: Yes, he’s really good. And you’ve
collaborated over the years with several people. Two
that come to mind for me are Collaboration with Earl Klugh,
and Absolute Benson where you worked a lot with Joe Sample
and Christian McBride. When you work with people like
that, what does it do for you in terms of creating and making
music?
GB: Well, I’m basically a listener
myself. I’m always amazed at the way the other
person approaches a song. When you get people like the
names you mentioned, Joe Sample does not approach anything
the way anyone else does. I’m always amazed at
where he comes from. Where is he getting these ideas? I
kind of listen more than anything else, and I try to play something
that’s complimentary, more than trying to prove something. If
there’s a space that allows me to go beyond that, then
yeah, I’ll stretch out and throw some things in there
that will mess a couple of guitar players’ minds up.
(Laughs) Or just stretch myself out and surprise myself. But,
more than anything, I’m happy to be in a situation where
we’re playing something that’s fresh and different
than what we played yesterday. So that works for me. And
Earl Klugh – having gotten his career off the ground
when he was a teenager – I took him on the road. I
introduced him on the album White Rabbit many
years ago with Billy Cobham and Ron Carter and Hubert Laws,
and all those great players. Then I helped him to get
his own recording contract. So to see his career blossom
like that and to see the effect that he had on the world – which
I always knew he would if they would just give him a chance
and let him be heard. He didn’t believe that though. He
didn’t believe that anybody would fall in love with a
guy playing with the classical approach because there was no
precedence for it except Charlie Byrd with bossa nova music. But
when that died, there was nothing else, and Earl came out and
created this genre for acoustic classical style guitar that’s
become so popular in modern times. I’m very proud
of him and that album. We’re used to playing together
and complimenting each other; me doing electric sounds, and
him doing the acoustic sounds. It really became a great
sound.
SV: You are arguably the heir apparent to Wes Montgomery. In
the same way that he influenced a whole generation of guitarists,
you have as well. I remember seeing you a few years
ago at a festival. You were playing, and the way I
was seated, I could kind of see backstage. One of the
guitar players who had played earlier that day was standing
there watching you play. I could clearly see that he
was as big a fan as we were. He had the same expression
on his face as everyone else in the audience had. It
was pretty cool actually. I could rattle off names,
but you already know. Does that make you feel good,
or is that too much of a burden?
GB: No. We have to make the best out
of life and all we can count on is the moment. We can’t
talk about what tomorrow is, yesterday has already been done,
but we can borrow and bounce off of each other, because that’s
how you get up some stairs. You have to take one step
at a time. And sometimes somebody may already be on that
step. That doesn’t mean you have to wait until
he gets off that step – go on and jump on that step. It
might be hard, but you jump on it. You might learn something,
then you go on to the next one. But that’s what
life is all about. Wes Montgomery left me some incredible
things to think about. And he left us a legacy of experiments
that were his own and worked beautifully. So by examining
those experiments and watching him, because I was a friend
of his and he allowed me to be his apprentice many times, I
learned from all of those aspects; his personality, his ethics
for practicing every day, his tonality on guitar, and his technique. I
understood how it worked; the stories he told me about the
things that no one else will ever know. I have them in
my psyche. So it’s a privilege. I think young
guitar players I come in contact with who use some of the things
I know and who ask me questions, I have to give it to them. I
have to pass down what’s been given to me, so they’ll
take this to another place in music. But the only way
they can do that is we have to be loose enough and confident
enough that we’ve done our thing. It’s been
good. People have enjoyed it. Let it ride. Move
it on. (Laughs)
SV: Do you really practice every day? Still?
GB: Just about every day. Oh, I have
to!
SV: You began your career as a jazz guitarist, but
you moved in and out of other genres both as an instrumentalist
and a vocalist, and you’ve pretty much covered a lot
of territory.
GB: Well, let me clear this up. It’s
a good thing. That’s the conceived thing about
me. As a kid, seven years old, little Georgie Benson
worked the street corners of Pittsburgh with his ukulele until
a club owner heard me out there and said, “Take me to
meet your folks. I want to meet your parents.” So
I introduced him to my parents and he asked them, “Could
you let him work in my nightclub?” And they said, “Absolutely
not! He’s got to go to school. He’s
just a kid!” He said, “He could work on weekends – Fridays
and Saturdays. There’s no school the next day.” Then
he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. They
were paying me more every night then my parents were making
in two weeks, so they went for it. And it got us in a
lot of trouble, don’t get me wrong. The authorities
came in and shut all of that down. But only to say this – when
I was nine years old, I kept up that same street corner thing
with a guitar. Now my hands were large enough at nine
to lay the guitar, which is what I really wanted to do. So
I did that, and I was discovered, and a guy took me to New
York after asking my parents. He took me to New York
and I recorded my first record when I was 10 years old. Now
remember, I’m a singer and not a guitar player. George
Benson was a singer, and I danced and played ukulele behind
my singing, which was a novelty thing to see a kid jumping
up and down on stage singing and playing a ukulele; then later,
the guitar. I was not good on the guitar, but I added
something to back my singing up with. Then my career
was over at 11. My parents got tired. It was just
too much coming at them and I was too young for all of that – for
the music business. I went back to school. At 15
years old, though, I started a singing group with my cousin. These
are things I was learning. All of this stuff I’m
putting in my brain. I knew about dancing. I knew
about singing jazz tunes in a nightclub setting, pop tunes,
R&B tunes in a nightclub setting. Now I’ve
got the guitar. I learned about chords. Now I’ve
got the singing group thing. I learned all about singing
groups. I know who the greatest singing groups are. I
battled Smokey Robinson when he first came out of Detroit in
the 60s, so I know all about that era. I know Marvin
Gaye came out of the greatest singing group of all time. He
was the last lead singer with The Moonglows. To me, they
were the best that’s ever done it. The word doo-wop
came from them. They were the ones who sang it first. Anyway,
Marvin, being the last lead singer, went to Motown with his
manager when the group broke up, and they ended up on Motown
records. That’s how his career got off the ground. But
I knew all of these things. Then, when I was 19 years
old, Jack McDuff came through Pittsburgh and he needed a guitar
player so badly that he took me, though I was not ready yet. I
had decent ears, but I had no chops yet. Chops is when
you can play what you’re thinking, articulate in and
out of chord changes, and so forth. I had no experience
in that stuff, and Jack turned me into a guitar player. And
the thing about that is I had just come out on the road, so
nobody knew me – the kid in Pittsburgh. They only
knew George Benson the guitar player that played with Jack
McDuff. So that’s where my guitar career got off
the ground. So that’s why people think I started
on guitar. (Laughs) I thought I’d let you know
that. (Laughs)
SV: Oh! I see. That’s very interesting. Wow! So
there was a need, and you filled it?
GB: Yes, I filled it. It fell into place. It
was a challenge. Jack used to cuss me out every night
on the bandstand because I couldn’t play his music because
it was a challenge. I finally dug in and started practicing
for the first time, because I never really practiced. I
had good ears. Some people just have wonderful ears,
and they can play almost anything they hear. But jazz
is way beyond that. You have to learn harmony and theory
and rhythm and so forth and so on. So Jack made me do
those things, and he gave me some of the greatest information
about what people liked, such as, “Put in a blues lick
here and there and people will love it much better, because
everybody loves the blues.” I had no idea what
he was saying, but when I put it to the test, it worked. (Laughs)
SV: I have one more question. You’ve
done a lot. You’ve won eight Grammy’s,
you’ve recorded many, many albums, you’ve got
a 40+ year career, and you continue to perform and record. What’s
next for you? What do your fans have to look forward
to in the future?
GB: I’ve been trying to figure out when
all of this is going to shut down and close down. I haven’t
been able to figure that out. I tried to retire 25 years
ago, but it didn’t work.
SV: Well, I think I speak for a lot of people
when I say that we certainly hope that you don’t retire
anytime soon. We look forward to more great music from
you in years to come. Thank you so much for taking
the time out to chat with SmoothViews today. I know
you’re very busy, so it’s greatly appreciated.
GB: Thank you.
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