I often buy albums because of the covers. In 1999, Verve reissued George Benson’s Giblet Gravy for the first time since it first came out. I snatched it up the second I saw the cover photo of a young GB at a lunch counter.
This 1968 release was Verve’s attempt to introduce a young and respected jazz artist to a larger jazz artist. Sound-wise the album combined the Boogaloo-accented Hard Bop releases of jazz guitarists Kenny Burrell and, especially, Wes Montgomery and pushed them more towards the Soul Jazz George Benson had been playing with Jack McDuff. Whereas Benson’s earlier recordings on Columbia had a rawer, chicken shack sound, the tunes on Giblet Gravy would sound as natural playing on the radio as at a pool hall.
The type of music featured on Giblet Gravy was hip again, in the late 1990s and early 2000s and younger jazz, club, and hip-hop artists were name-dropping Benson as a key influence after his reputation endured years of ridicule for leaving serious jazz behind for pop.
When I played the Giblet Gravy CD I realized I knew a few of the cuts on it from Blue Benson, an old record that you could always find in the used bins that very quietly compiled GB’s Verve tracks. It may be a compilation but it would be the first LP I’d recommend for those looking to introduce George Benson into their vinyl collection.
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