While this certainly presages "smooth jazz," it is sexy, smoldering and alluring all at once.
![who produced breezin george benson who produced breezin george benson](https://e.snmc.io/i/600/s/aa6ddfba1d96df28332db961a2e87e71/6858247/george-benson-breezin-Cover-Art.jpg)
Szabo and Benson would go onto perform the song together live in New York City in 1977, though recordings of this event don't seem to exist.Īlthough everyone thinks Breezin' is a "pop" album, the only vocal Benson takes here is on the lovely cover of Leon Russell's "This Masquerade," with his lovely scat solo. When Benson hit with the song, Szabo put it back into his repertoire - even claiming the song as his own on a few occasions - despite its Bobby Womack authorship. I still never sat through Breezin' until I discovered guitarist Gabor Szabo and found that the title track to Benson's album emanated from the Hungarian guitarist's 1971 album, High Contrast (Blue Thumb), which, like Breezin', was also produced by Tommy LiPuma. So I didn't need to buy the record and didn't, for the first time, until years after.Ī couple of years later I discovered the Benson I would fall in love with on CTI (specifically Good King Bad) and, later, I even met childhood friends (that's you, Joyce, if you're reading) and associates of Benson. Every radio station we listened to back then played Benson relentlessly. I also remember that, as a Pittsburgher, we all took great pride in George Benson, hometown-boy-made-good. For me, I was 13 and it brings back (weird) memories of swim-team meets, practices and long days at the swimming pool - back in the day when I could successfully sport a Speedo. The album's single, "This Masquerade," was all over the radio in the summer of 1976 and I can remember it like it was yesterday. And now that we're nearing three and a half decades since the release of Breezin', I am happy to say that I finally "get" this one too. It took five separate purchases of Bitches Brew for me to finally get that. Indeed, it was the first "million seller" jazz had ever experienced.īreezin', Benson's 1976 album and his first one away from CTI Records, is a magnificent piece of work, however you choose to view it - jazz, pop, whatever. Well, like, Miles - who vowed with Bitches Brew to break on through to the other side - I was also wrong about Breezin' too, another effort - whether intended or not - that really crossed, rather successfully, over to the other side. I guess I figured that Breezin' was the beginning of the end of Benson's artistic journey and the catalyst for some of his lesser efforts that followed. I loved pre- Breezin' Benson and only sort of liked some of the post- Breezin' Benson I had heard. And I was definitely the sort who loved pre- Bitches Miles as much as post- Bitches Miles. No matter how many times I bought it, in whatever format, it always sounded stupid to me.
![who produced breezin george benson who produced breezin george benson](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CqALN0P6UHQ/TxfVMzp8W4I/AAAAAAAAKQk/lhFjaBqK4Ro/s1600/CD.jpg)
Truth be told, I did the exact same thing with the Miles Davis "classic" Bitches Brew too. I have bought - and gotten rid of - several copies of Breezin' (Warner Bros., 1976), always unable to hear what the big deal was. I have spent years resisting this album from absolute disregard, at first, to unfettered stupefaction later at its initial and seemingly unaccountable continued popularity.