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. I knew by the cover it was going to be good.
This 1968 release was Verve’s attempt to introduce a young and respected jazz artist to a larger audience. 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 they would in 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. Blue Benson may be a compilation but it would be the first LP I’d recommend for those looking to introduce George Benson into their vinyl collections.
Art
Just lovely.
There is a simple backstory to the beautiful but mysterious design of this compilation of George Benson’s late 1960s recordings on Verve Records.
We have established that Blue Benson is a compilation of cuts from George Benson’s short period at Verve Records. How short? Benson’s stay at Verve consisted of two albums long that both came out in 1968. Not coincidently, 1968 was the year the brilliant guitarist Wes Montgomery, Verve biggest jazz/instrumental star, unexpectedly died from a heart attack at the tender age of 45.
George Benson was seen as a replacement for Wes Montgomery, who was made a star by Verve’s Creed Taylor. Wes jumped ship away from Verve to stay with his producer when Taylor started CTI Records. Benson, no dummy, also jumped ship to CTI the second he had the chance. Benson’s two Verve albums Giblet Gravy and Goodies came out at the same time his CTI albums Shape of Things To Come and Tell It Like It Is. That’s four studio albums in one year.
Neither of Benson’s Verve albums charted but CTI’s Shape of Things to Come, a more modernistic take on fusion Soul Jazz, was a big jazz hit for him the same year. Not only was Shape Benson’s very first jazz seller but it did very well, almost cracking the Top 10 in the Jazz Album Charts at No. 11 and hitting No. 38 in the R&B charts. Benson’s decision to go with CTI was vindicated and he would enjoy five Top 10 jazz albums there (including one No. 1). All of these straight Jazz Fusion albums would also cross over into the pop charts. This was especially impressive because Benson was a universally respected guitarist, maybe even the most respected jazz guitarist of the time, the Fusion Era guitarist that critics and fans on base sides of the generational jazz divide could agree on.
And, George Benson wasn’t even CTI’s best-selling artist. At first, as an independent label, CTI could quietly come to dominate the jazz market as the majors were focusing on the massive rise in sales for pop albums. When the majors looked around and realized that jazz was moving series product during the 1970s, they realized that they needed to catch up. They didn’t like that an independent label was beating them at their own game.
The fact that jazz (funky, plugged in jazz, but still jazz) was actually selling in the 1970s has been forgotten about. If anything, independent label CTI became too successful:
Warner Bros. wasn’t too happy about CTI capturing the biggest share of the jazz marketplace during the first half of the 1970s. They had their eye on George Benson, who played guitar, which had supplanted the piano as the biggest instrument in popular music. Besides his jazz guitar chops, Benson was also a strong singer, with a soulful voice that upped his appeal even more. Finally, put a picture of young George Benson side by side with other CTI bestsellers such as Grover Washington Jr, Stanley Turrentine, or Freddie Hubbard and Benson comes out as a very safe bet.
So, Warner’s felt George Benson had the making of a bigger star in him and Benson himself worried that Creed Taylor was only interested in him as a jazz guitarist and not enough as a singer. Warner’s agreed his singing talents were under utilized.
The Beatles trailblazed using the recording studio to experiment. They could do this because, although they had a truly terrible contract in every other respect, they didn’t have to pay for studio time. Suddenly, major labels were spending a lot of money recording pop albums. They’d recoup the money from the artists — but only if the albums sold. If they didn’t sell, they lost a lot of money. In contrast to this, jazz artists worked very fast. Instead of taking weeks, or even months, to record an album, they usually did it in two sessions. What Creed Taylor did was record jazz albums in two days that sounded as opulent as Classic Rock albums.
Now, even at the height of jazz LPs selling, most jazz albums, didn’t sell much at all. But, it lifted all boats that 1976 was smack dab in the middle of a truly epic era of record sales. Select LPs by Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and others were selling like pop albums. A big hit jazz album in the 1950s sold around 50,000 copies. A big hit jazz album in 1976 sold in the hundreds of thousands and could sell 500,000 to 1 Million copies. George Benson wasn’t going Gold at CTI but his releases were selling in the hundreds of thousands. Warner’s knew they could increase that number.
In 1976, CTI made an agreement with Warner Bros. where they would each alternate releasing sets by George Benson. CTI needed to do this because they made a disastrous decision to distribute their own records and creating their own fully-staffed distribution centers was a financial disaster. CTI felt that Warner’s turning George Benson into a bigger star would make his next CTI release an even bigger seller and restore their balance sheets. You know they were desperate for cash if that was their Plan A. While that plan sounds crazy consider that it worked out for Prestige Records when Miles Davis jumped ship for Columbia. Miles still had four albums due for Prestige and Columbia’s George Avakian, a true gentleman, suggested that Prestige wait until Columbia made Miles a bigger star to release those four albums to greater sales. If it worked out for Prestige so maybe it would work for CTI.
Uhhhmmmm…
Things worked out for George Benson and Warner Bros. if not for CTI. For the very first time, Benson got a big promotional push as an R&B vocalist as well as a jazz guitarist. Warner’s started things off with Benson the Brilliant Guitarist.
The title track to Breezin’ was an insanely catchy earworm that “only” went to No. 63 in the pop charts but it seemed like it was a way bigger hit during that era. That was the power of Warner Bros. at the time. I was a kid in 1976 and “Breezin'” was ubiquitous — it played on FM & AM radio, in every store, on TV, and in every restaurant FOR YEARS. I had assumed it was a Top 10 hit.
Later, I discovered that “Breezin'” was a cover of a neglected tune on a Gabor Szabo album and that Benson’s version doesn’t sound too different from Szabo’s recording. Szabo didn’t write the song (Bobby Womack did) so he didn’t make a dime from Benson’s hit.
Maybe I’d knock Benson for this but he had plenty of talent to back himself up. His next Warner’s single from the Breezin’ album was “This Masquerade,” a lush romantic ballad that showed off both his vocal talents and his guitar abilities. Its actually his only vocal on the album, though Breezin‘s instrumentals were more Birth of Smooth Jazz than CTI’s kinetic and electrifying jazz-funk. The thing that became famous from this point on was Benson’s ability to scat along in perfect harmony with his guitar playing. You can hear this in “This Masquerade.” Benson did this while improvising, which is especially impressive.
“This Masquerade” was an even bigger hit than “Breezin” and sailed into the pop Top 10 singles charts. George Benson went from being a respected jazz musician on the rise to a mainstream pop star. Looking back at this period, I remember that TV icons like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and Diana Shore were visibly overjoyed with GB and loved showcasing the guitarist during the Classic Rock era. Of course they did. George Benson had old world talent and ability. Kids loved him while adults not only respected him they also understood him. I’d say only Stevie Wonder enjoyed more universal establishment respect than George Benson during this time.
These two singles helped the album Breezin’ sail to No. 1 in the Jazz Album Charts, followed by it nailing No. 1 in the R&B Album Charts, and finally, to up to the very top position of the Pop Albums charts. Of course Warner Bros. was right about George Benson. Breezin’ sold 3 million copies in the USA alone and was the 9th biggest selling album of bicentennial year 1976. Extra impressive when you consider that the two biggest sellers that year were Hotel California by Eagles and Stevie’s Songs In The Key Of Life, which just happens to feature George Benson’s guitar on one track. Also, extra impressive because it kep tselling when there was another George Benson release in the market during the same time, CTI’s Good King Bad.
So, George Benson was suddenly huge.
By this time, Verve Records was swallowed up by Polydor and they were reduced to being a catalog reissue label. The 1970s was the era when the Be-Bop revival was taking hold and Verve was mostly reissuing music from their Bop and vocal catalogs but they looked into their archives and saw what they had in the can by the suddenly red hot guitarist. Blue Benson contains George Benson Verve material recorded in 1968 repackaged to look like new George Benson CTI product. Sound wise though, the Verve material selected sidestepped CTI funky Fusion and went out of its way to appeal to jazz fans rather than pop ones.
CTI Or Not CTI, That Is The George Benson Question.
Great looking records.
Music
Giblet Gravy is the superior Benson LP of the two he recorded for the label in 1968. For one thing, the talent level on it is just insane — and the personnel on it would basically be replicated on his CTI sets. Besides Benson on guitar, it also features Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Billy Cobham on drums, and Johnny Pacheco on congas. Eric Gale plays rhythm guitar on half the album, along with a horn section, and back-up singers. The album includes a few then-current pop hits recast as instrumentals, my favorite being Benson’s reading of The Rascals’ “Groovin'”.
As sweet as these 1960s covers are there is no way they’d be put on a 1976 George Benson collection. It would be like trying to sell a jazz artist in the 1980s with old instrumental covers of “American Pie” or “Feelings.”
Instead, Blue Benson contains the guitarist laying out beautiful Bop lines on the standard “What’s New,” showcases a slinkier side to his older juke joint style on “Thunder Walk,” and goes for an extended jazz-blues on the low-flame scorcher “Low Down And Dirty” (both of these tunes were GB originals). To top everything off, Blue Benson opens with a cut recorded at the Giblet Gravy sessions but not included on the original album until the 1999 CD reissue — a joyous tour of Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce.”
In 1968, jazz was still current events so Benson’s take on a Be-Bop classic may have seemed old fashioned in the Soul Jazz era. Still, it is a true shame that it didn’t make the final cut of Giblet Gravy. But, by 1976, Bop in general and Charlie Parker in particular, was experiencing a popular renaissance. Verve wasn’t putting out new Fusion jazz or funk product but it was putting out retrospectives of Parker, and Dizzy and Bud Powell because things fall in and out of fashion — even brilliant things.
So, if Verve figured nobody wanted GB laying out on “Billie’s Bounce” in 1968 they knew jazz fans would love it in 1976. Its now deep into the 21st century and George Benson playing “Billie’s Bounce” still sounds about as good as it gets. Billy Cobham’s drum work on this track is mesmerizing and both Benson and Herbie’s extended solos sizzle.
The rest of the tracks on Blue Benson come from the Verve album Goodies. This one starts out with “I Remember Wes,” Benson’s lovely tribute to Wes Montgomery, his departed musical mentor. Its an elegant start to the album but things get dicier from there. The problem with the album isn’t George Benson, who plays wonderfully on it but the backing charts on it. These were handled by R&B man Horace Ott, who decided to smear harmonicas and Jew’s Harps (which sound like twanging rubber bands) over the material. Its like the were trying to make Benson, a dapper Pittsburgh native, into a cartoon plantation Southerner.
Thankfully, there are a couple of great tracks on the album. Besides grabbing “I Remember Wes” from Goodies, Blue Benson also includes the Benson original “Doobie Doobie Blues” and the guitarist’s vocal R&B rendition of the standard “That Lucky Old Sun.” Weirdly, they didn’t pick the great reading of Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father,” that Goodies contains for inclusion on Blue Benson. Maybe its too close in tempo and format to Silver’s original? If it does track too closely to the original recording at first it should be noted that Benson’s guitar solo on it goes its own way and is truly inspired.
So, Giblet Gravy is a tasty LP that I recommend heartily while Goodies is a borderline decent album with a couple of superior cuts on it. The compilation Blue Benson creams most of the best songs from both so is heartily recommended on vinyl. For one thing, you get the previously unreleased “Billie’s Bounce” that has GB killing a Bop classic. For another thing you get a great album cover. For a third thing, Blue Benson can be found often in the used bins at bargain prices while Giblet Gravy is a pricey collector’s item.
George Benson’s Breezin’, his first WB album, was an era defining hit so things must have worked out for CTI Records, right? No. Warner Bros signed the contract for sharing George Benson and then immediately sued CTI to stop them from putting out any GB solo albums of their own. They only things they could do was release a duo set called Benson & Farrell, which like previous CTI sets sold well for a jazz album but sold worse than pretty much any other GB release for the label. That may have also been because CTI was going through distribution problems at the time and were suddenly on the hook to Motown records.
Today, Creed Taylor would have made untold millions from Impulse, Verve, and especially, from CTI. But, back in the 1970s, executive salaries were more in line with regular mortals. He couldn’t cover the $600,000 he owed Motown for distribution expenses. Warner’s already had George Benson. Motown took Grover Washington, Jr while Sony suddenly owned the CTI back catalog.
Creed Taylor had a breeched contract from Warner’s and rightly sued them for how they reneged on their deal. The $3 million he won from them was enough to set him up for the next stage of his life but wasn’t even equal to the money WB had made screwing him over in the first place. He lost his catalog and was only able to put out a few quality CTI releases after this, which he still had trouble getting distributed. Whether he was blacklisted by the industry or whether pride stopped him for working with the labels that screwed him over I don’t know. He did live to a ripe old age and has seen his reputation restored.
If Blue Benson is the mainstream jazz LP I would recommend first, those wanting to listen to Benson destroy on a tougher Post-Bop set should check out the CTI album Beyond The Blue Horizon.
— Nick Dedina
Nick's Vinyl Picks 