THE CROSSROADS George Benson

In his never-ending quest to find musical links between the great jazz and blues guitarists, this issue John Wheatcroft explores the bluesy side of the incredible George Benson.

George Benson was born in Pittsburgh in 1943 and was playing ukulele and guitar in public before the age of 10. As a teenager he worked with organist Jack McDuff and recorded his first solo album, The New Boss Guitar, at 21. George joined the Miles Davis band in the mid 60s, featuring on albums Paraphernalia and Miles In The Sky. Benson continued his solo career with releases for both Creed Taylor’s CTI label and Warner Brothers. In 1976 he recorded the massively successful album Breezin’ and the following year won Grammys for Best Instrumental Performance, Best R&B Performance and Record Of The Year.

From that point, Benson’s career has been staggeringly successful, remarkably diverse and prolific. He has amassed a legion of devoted fans across the world and has gained the respect and admiration from guitarists across all genres and generations. His dedication and focus to his craft has remained true throughout his career and even when his music has shifted towards a more pop, soul or R&B direction, his commitment to staying on top of his formidable jazz chops and his championing of jazz has remained a consistent. He is still a regular face in the New York jazz guitar scene, frequently jamming with with up-and-coming players and taking great joy in ensuring his playing is always on top form.

Benson’s playing has passion, commitment and what he refers to as a sense of reckless abandon. His tone is warm and full but there is an edge and attack to his delivery that gives his sound vitality. His main influences include Wes Montgomery, along with contemporaries such as Grant Green and Pat Martino and, in keeping with our Crossroads theme, there’s a fair bit of blues too, possibly down to his enormous admiration and respect for his friend, the late great BB King, along with some of the bluesy and gospel inspired sounds George picked up from organ legends such as Jack McDuff and Lonnie Smith.

The examples that follow explore this bluesier sides to George’s playing. We begin with a typical Benson phrase over a G7 vamp that uses a mixture of approaches combined within a single cohesive line. Next, we break these ideas up, looking at both Mixolydian scale lines and Minor Pentatonic sequences, before moving onto chord-melody ideas and double-stop concepts against a G7th static tonality that you can incorporate into both your comping and improvisation vocabulary.

We round things off with a complete solo based around a 12-bar jazz-blues with a four-bar into tag, again in the key of G and full of George-inspired ideas that you can incorporate into your own playing, to add both sophistication and style.

“Charlie Christian taught us a great lesson, how to incorporate bluesy licks into his music. So I paid attention” George Benson

George’s signature Ibanez has been his guitar of choice for four decades so his sound has remained remarkably consistent. Strings are flatwounds with a14-gauge first, while amplification is split between a solid-state Polytone for its warmth and a Fender valve combo for a more speedy response and punch. Pick a little closer to the neck pickup to achieve something close to Benson’s fat but articulate sound, but go easy on the reverb.

George Benson in full flight: as with many jazz and fusion players, notice how high the guitar sits on George’s strap