George Benson ~ Breezin' 1976 Jazzy Purrfection Version

George Benson entered this world on March 22, 1943 in Pittsburgh, PA. Given a ukelele as a gift, he was playing it to earn a few pennies at the age of seven! Rumour has it that he was playing guitar at the age of eight in a blind pig (unlicensed bar) that got shut down by the authorities. A true prodigy at the age of 10, he released his first single, "She Makes Me Mad" as Little Georgie on RCA Victor label which you can listen to at    • Видео   He entered high school and continued learning jazz with organist Jack McDuff. His first full album was "The New Boss Guitar" recorded at the age of 21, then "It's Uptown with the George Benson Quartet" and then "The George Benson Cookbook". Jazz legend Miles Davis hired the young Benson to work with him and featured his special brand of guitar playing on his song "Paraphanalia" on the 1968 LP "Miles In The Sky" and shortly thereafter signed to Verve Records. Moving from Verve to A&M and then on to CTI, he was able to expand his fan base so much that when he signed to Warner Brothers in 1976, it resulted in a platinum album that is considered to be his finest achievement ever. The first single released was "This Masquerade" a Leon Russell song where George displayed his vocal talents, something he did infrequently since he considered himself to be a guitarist first and foremost. The second song issued was "Breezin'" a beautiful music type jazz tune that now is considered drum and bass. The floodgates of popularity opened and George was soon in demand, appearing on Stevie Wonder's "Another Star" and toured with Minnie Riperton (#1 pop hit Lovin' You). He was asked to write a song for the Muhammad Ali bio-pic "The Greatest" and came up with another classic R&B tune, "The Greatest Love Of All" that peaked at #24, but went all the way to #1 for three weeks when Whitney Houston released her version in 1985. A live version of "On Broadway" was released as a single and won a Grammy for the album that spawned it, "Weekend In L.A.). His pop breakthrough came via Qunicy Jones and his Qwest label with a Rod Temperton penned tune, "Give Me The Night". That song went Top 10 on the pop and R&B charts. Benson returned to his Jazz roots but continued recording in an R&B vein and won three platinum and two gold albums in the process.