Generally, I’m not the type who goes out for greatest hits records. My experience in the music industry taught me that artists do not generally receive royalties from these releases and they’re cheap for major labels to manufacture and make huge profits from.
However, sacrifice always means missing out on some terrific music, and the new Essential George Benson is a fine example of music I’d never have listened to were it not for my foray into critique. Benson is a legendary vocalist-guitarist who started wowing jazz musicians back in the early sixties with his soulful, precise finger play and his blinding speed when he was still a teenager.
The Essential digs deep into Benson’s musical archives and pulls out some live jazz masterpieces Benson helped create with many luminaries including Brother Jack McDuff, Miles Davis, and Stanley Turrentine, among others. This is a truly amazing body of work, because compilation producer Richard Seidel doesn’t just dwell on Benson voluminous CBS/Sony catalogue, he includes Benson’s work with Creed Taylor, Warner’s and Prestige so one could grasp Benson’s career through 1980. In a sense, what Seidel has created is a musical documentary that is enhanced by a revealing interview with Benson in the pages of the cover booklet conducted by NPR’s Hear and Now jazz commentator James Isaacs.
The double-disk set is beyond any generic greatest hits you’ll ever hear. It isn’t just that Benson’s work is extraordinary throughout, but the way in which his work is captured. As I listened to the first disk, I thought about ritual beliefs of a photo entrapping one’s soul. In the case of The Essential it is the recording equipment that capture chunks of Benson’s soaring musical spirit with each song and as payback, Benson catapults himself into my opened conscience, captivating my very soul.
Article comments
1 - godoggo
Haven't heard this, but my impression is that, while his early recordings have better settings for his playing, his playing itself wasn't as good. He really got his chops together around the time he went Mersh. Kind of a shame.