George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is an American musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter. He began his professional career at 21 as a jazz guitarist. Benson uses a rest-stroke picking technique similar to that of gypsy jazz players such as Django Reinhardt...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJazz Singer
Date of Birth22 March 1943
CityPittsburgh, PA
CountryUnited States of America
moved
I moved to Hawaii from Inglewood, New Jersey. I had planned on retiring there.
columbus hot taking town
Columbus is taking off and it's about to boom, this is a hot town right now.
albums concord good promised songs
I've done two albums for Concord Records; one was with Al Jarreau and it did very well for us. The second album was called 'Songs And Stories,' and it had good songs and good performances, but I promised them I would do an album that was more jazz-oriented.
bee dance disco dominated everybody fantastic forget gees late mode outside people queen record summer
Don't forget the late '70s was dominated by people like the Queen of Disco Donna Summer and everybody who was in that bag. We were already in dance mode, the Bee Gees were out with the most fantastic record the world had ever heard, so the world was in the mode. Anything outside of that mode was secondary.
band beyond chords complete days jazz learned music nice playing seems stretch
The jazz always seems to automatically come out, because it was from my jazz days that I learned that spark. And the nice thing with my band and this repertoire, which is a complete joy, is that we go beyond just playing chords and melody. It is music that can stretch out.
teaching harmony instruments
I spent a lot of time teaching myself theory and harmony so I could be free to express myself on the instrument.
player guitar world
The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish.
teacher going-out
The greatest teacher is just going out and playing.
music opportunity guitar
Lenny Breau dazzled me with his extraordinary guitar playing... I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his artistry.
player guitar giving
I listen to other guitar players, yeah. It gives me new concepts and shows me where the instrument is going for the future and it is going some places. There are some musicians who are really putting out a good vibe with new theories. I try and keep up.
player guitar careers
My whole career from the early 70s on has been mind-blowing. I didn't imagine in my life that I would ever be considered a guitar player first of all because I started off as a singer.
music play people
People who love jazz musicians love us when we play what we want to play and we're starving. But as soon as you commercialize your sound like Wes Montgomery did, the jazz fans and the critics are down on you!
music cat jazz
I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.
music kenny guitarist
There is no finer guitarist than Kenny Burrell