In a long and highly successful recording career that began when he was just nine, George Benson has moved smoothly through various genres, initially playing straight jazz, usually in the small-combo format. In 1976, with the album Breezin’, he made a surprising switch to smooth jazz, a genre which he could almost be said to have invented, and emerged as a capable vocalist. The album went to the top of Billboard’s Pop, Jazz and R&B charts, and produced the hit singles “This Masquerade” and “Breezin’.” This transition into a mellow pop/R&B groove saw Benson achieve huge global success and score a string of Grammys. It was also something of a revelation. Prior to then, few were aware of his vocal abilities, and he has continued to mix and match vocal and instrumental work throughout his subsequent releases.
With the new album Walking to New Orleans (Provogue Records), Benson delivers yet another surprise. Not only is it his first new release in six years, but it also finds the guitarist making an unexpected diversion into classic R&B and 1950s rock and roll, with a focus on the music of Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. The results are so satisfying that it begs asking why Benson hasn’t ventured down this path before. While the Domino tracks are an obvious fit for his own warm vocal tone, the Berry songs work with equal success. Opting for a mix of well-known and less-obvious covers, Benson stamps his identity over all the material, bringing effective, concise, jazz-inflected solos and scat singing to the hard-swinging band arrangements.
Remarkably, the idea for the record came not from Benson but from his label. “It was a record company idea,” Benson says. “I thought myself that it was a little bit