The Essential George Benson
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The Essential George Benson
''The Essential George Benson'' is a compilation album by American jazz musician George Benson, released in 2006 as a double-disc, 21-track career-spanning anthology. It is part of Sony BMG's ''Essential'' series of compilation albums. Reception ''Jazz Times'' refers to the album as "an extraordinary musician by any standard, Benson comes close to redeeming some horribly dated CTI material, including 'White Rabbit', a landmark in schlock. There are also highlights from other key players-don’t miss Kenny Barron’s Rhodes solo on the 1974 Don Sebesky arrangement of 'Take Five.' Write off the R&B tracks if you must, but they’re flawlessly realized. 'This Masquerade' is a model of pure, economical soul singing. 'On Broadway' appears in a 10-minute live version."George Benson - ...
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George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, playing soul jazz with Jack McDuff and others. He then launched a successful solo career, alternating between jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, R&B singing, and scat singing. His album ''Breezin''' was certified triple-music recording sales certification, platinum, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' album chart in 1976. His concerts were well attended through the 1980s, and he still has a large following. Benson has won ten Grammy Awards and has been honored with a List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame#B, star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Biography Early career Benson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of seven, he first played the ukulele in a corner drug s ...
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Jazz Times
''JazzTimes'' was an American print magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth in subscriptions, deepening of writer pools, and internationalization, ''Radio Free Jazz'' expanded its focus and, at the suggestion of jazz critic Leonard Feather, changed its name to ''JazzTimes'' in 1980. Sabin's Glenn joined the magazine staff in 1984. In 1990, ''JazzTimes'' incorporated exclusive cover photography and higher quality art and graphic design. The magazine reviews audio and video releases concerts, instruments, music supplies, and books. It also includes a guide to musicians, events, record labels, and music schools. David Fricke, whose writing credits include ''Rolling Stone'', ''Melody Maker'' and '' Mojo'', also contributes to the magazine. Web traffic JazzTimes.com was redesigned in 2019. Among its most ...
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Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine (April 5, 1934 – September 12, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophone, tenor saxophonist and record producer. He began his career playing R&B for Earl Bostic and later soul jazz recording for the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label from 1960, touching on jazz fusion during a stint on CTI Records, CTI in the 1970s. He was described by critic Steve Huey as "renowned for his distinctively thick, rippling tone [and] earthy grounding in the blues." In the 1960s Turrentine was married to organist Shirley Scott, with whom he frequently recorded, and he was the younger brother of trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, with whom he also recorded. Biography Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District (Pittsburgh), Hill District, Pennsylvania, United States, and was raised at 908 Bryn Mawr Road Pittsburgh, PA 15219, in the 3rd-floor apartment, into a musical family. His father, Thomas Turrentine Sr., was a saxophonist with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, his mother ...
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Sugar (Stanley Turrentine Album)
''Sugar'' is an album by jazz tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, his first recorded for the CTI Records label following his long association with Blue Note, featuring performances by Turrentine with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, guitarist George Benson, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Kaye. Pianist Lonnie Liston Smith is added on the title track, organist Butch Cornell and percussionist Pablo Landrum are on the other two tracks. The CD reissue added a live version of the title track recorded at the Hollywood Palladium in 1971 with flautist Hubert Laws, drummer Billy Cobham, percussionist Airto and keyboardist Johnny Smith. Reception The album is one of Turrentine's best-received and was greeted with universal acclaim on release and on subsequent reissues. The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek stated, "If jazz fans are interested in Turrentine beyond the Blue Note period — and they should be — this is a heck of a place to listen for satisfaction".Jurek, T. AllMusic Rev ...
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Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a roughly five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis started on the trumpet in his early teens. He left to study at Juilliard School, Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, while addicted to heroin, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music under Prestige Records. After a ...
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Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary composer. In 1964 he joined Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1970. He recorded more than 20 albums as a bandleader. Many Shorter compositions have become jazz standards. His music earned worldwide recognition, critical praise, universal commendation, and 12 Grammy Awards. He was acclaimed for his mastery of the soprano saxophone since switching his focus from the tenor in the late 1960s, and began an extended reign in 1970 as ''DownBeat''s annual poll-winner on that instrument, winning the critics' poll for 10 consecutive years and the readers' for 18. ''The New York Times'' music critic Ben Ratliff described Shorter in 2008 as "probably jazz's greatest living small-group composer ...
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Miles In The Sky
''Miles in the Sky'' is a studio album by the jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. It was released on July 22, 1968, through Columbia Records. It was the last full album recorded by Davis' " Second Great Quintet" and marked the beginning of his foray into jazz fusion, with Herbie Hancock playing electric piano and Ron Carter playing electric bass guitar on opening track "Stuff". Additionally, electric guitarist George Benson features on "Paraphernalia". Background ''Miles in the Sky'' was produced by Teo Macero and recorded at Columbia Studio B in New York City on January 16, 1968, and May 15–17, 1968. The album's title was a nod to the Beatles' 1967 song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". This is the final appearance of tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams together on a full-length studio album in Davis’ discography. Composition For ''Miles in the Sky'', Davis and his quintet pulled further away from co ...
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The George Benson Cookbook
''The George Benson Cookbook'' is the third studio album by jazz/soul guitarist George Benson, and the second to be produced by John Hammond. Background The ''Hard Bop Homepage'' says of the album, "This is basically the George Benson quartet, with Smith and Cuber, but trombonist Bennie Green and percussionist Pucho were added on some tracks, giving them a bop flavor that delighted dedicated jazz fans and critics. Benson's quartet was modeled after Jack McDuff's—with baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber, organist Lonnie Smith, a powerhouse player who deserved more attention than he ever received, and Jimmy Lovelace or Marion Booker on drums. The sonorous tone of Cuber's baritone gives the quartet a richer, more dense texture than that obtained by McDuff, who used a tenor, but the overall sound is the same. At twenty-five, Ronnie Cuber was an alumnus of Marshall Brown's celebrated Newport Youth Band; he had spent the previous two years with Maynard Ferguson's very loud and br ...
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Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as " I Got Rhythm", " Embraceable You", " The Man I Love", and " Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera ''Porgy and Bess''. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book ''Lyrics on Several Occasions'', an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is widely considered an importa ...
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A Foggy Day
"A Foggy Day" is a popular song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film '' A Damsel in Distress''. It was originally titled "A Foggy Day (In London Town)" in reference to the pollution-induced pea soup fogs that were common in London during that period, and is often still referred to by the full title. The commercial recording by Astaire for Brunswick was very popular in 1937. Other recordings * Frank Sinatra – '' Songs for Young Lovers'' (1953) *Ella Fitzgerald on her ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book'' from Verve Records, 1959, and on '' Nice Work If You Can Get It'' (1983) * Charles Mingus – '' Pithecanthropus Erectus'' (1956) * Louis Armstrong with Ella Fitzgerald – ''Ella and Louis'' (1956) * Billie Holiday – '' Songs for Distingué Lovers'' (1957) * Red Garland – ''Red Garland at the Prelude'' (1959) * Frank Sinatra — ''Ring-a-Ding-Ding!'' (1961) * Judy Garla ...
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Ann Ronell
Ann Ronell (née Rosenblatt; December 25, 1905 – December 25, 1993) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards " Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933). Early life Ronell was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Morris and Mollie Rosenblatt, and graduated from Omaha's Central High School in 1923. She enrolled in Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, but transferred after her sophomore year to pursue a serious music education.Benjamin Sears"Ann Ronell" ''American National Biography Online'', 2000 She graduated from Radcliffe College, where she studied music under Walter Piston. While at Radcliffe, Ronell wrote music for college plays and contributed reviews and interviews to the school's music publication. After interviewing George Gershwin, she struck up a friendship with the composer, who hired her as a rehearsal pianist for his show '' Rosalie''. Gershwin suggested that she change her name from Rosenblatt to Ronell. Musi ...
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Willow Weep For Me
"Willow Weep for Me" is a popular song composed in 1932 by Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics. The song form is AABA, written in time,Zimmers, Tighe, E. (2009). ''Tin Pan Alley Girl: A Biography of Ann Ronell''. McFarland. pp. 19-22. although occasionally adapted for waltz time. One account of the inspiration for the song is that, during her time at Radcliffe College, Ronell "had been struck by the loveliness of the willow trees on campus, and this simple observation became the subject of an intricate song." The song was rejected by publishers for several reasons. First, the song is dedicated to George Gershwin. A dedication to another writer was disapproved of at the time, so the first person presented with the song for publication, Saul Bornstein, passed it to Irving Berlin, who accepted it. Other reasons stated for its slow acceptance are that it was written by a woman and that its construction was unusually complex for a composition that was targeted at a commercial ...
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