I was sad to learn from Marc Myers Jazzwax on the passing of Ronnie Cuber, especially in the circumstances [1]Ronnie Cuber (1941-2022) – JazzWax. Ronnie died on October 7th following complications from a surgery he never had that was delayed during COVID. Ronnie Cuber played with George Benson early in […]
On This Day: George Benson and The Rats
I’ve been exchanging emails with UK DJ, Edit supremo, and music historian, Greg Wilson[1]https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/writing-interviews-features/ about George Benson’s much overlooked, and somewhat complicated track “Supership“. More on that another day. In my filing/indexing folders I noticed that today, September 27th, in 1994, the “Kermit Unpigged” album was released. George Benson worked […]
Happy Born Day: George Benson
March 22nd it’s Happy Birthday for George Benson, born in 1943. This post is about two interesting items that feature George Benson’s back catalogue from the early 1970’s. Spotify playlists are included, even if you don’t have access to Spotify, there is some interesting side information. Writing about George Benson […]
Dr Smith Has Left The House
Success takes the right people, with the right skills, at the right time and the right place. You can’t copy or replicate success. And so it was that in 1965, having left Jack McDuff’s Quartet, George Benson set out on his own. Benson hired Buffalo NY native, Lonnie Smith to […]
We Knew What We Had – The Hill District
WE KNEW WHAT WE HAD: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD This was too interesting not to pass along. I originally received a link from Marc Myers, @jazzwax , in his daily newsletter. I’d read about George Benson’s youth and development around the clubs in Pittsburgh from his autobiography, “Benson”. It’s […]
Stonebone – Finally!
If you don’t have a copy, press play and read on, it’s a 1:52 sampler of the album tracks I’m delighted to have an exclusive long form review from CTI and Jazz Historian Doug Payne. I’m lucky to have been able to rip a copy of this album from a […]
CTI Artists on TV
Enjoy two great live performances from artists from CTI. Both comes from VHS tapes I managed to buy from ebay. I was hoping to avoid getting into converting VHS tapes, as they are often more trouble than they are worth. On the full length video of the 1976 awards, George […]
Weekend In London
Looks like George Benson will have two “new” releases later this year. News has reached me that Benson’s new label, Provogue, part of the Mascot Label Group, are going to release a sequel to the 1978, Warner Brothers, Weekend In LA live album. The new album, also recorded live, is […]
Happy Birthday George Benson
March 22, 2020 is George Benson’s 77th Birthday, Happy Birthday George! George is a GRAMMY Hall of Fame inductee, having been nominated 25 times and won 10 GRAMY awards. His first award was 1976, when he received 5x nominations and won 3x awards including Best R&B Instrumental Performance for the […]
A Little “Something” For The Weekend
I’ve been busy working on a vinyl to digital conversion of George Bensons The Other Side of Abbey Road. I have a purchased MP3 version and we have access to 2x streaming versions, which I suspect are same sourced. They are not great, a bit flat, even when the HD […]