More George Benson
More Jazz Recordings with Hot Stampers
White Hot Stamper sound on side two, which means this copy has the power to show you just how well-recorded the album really is, and how much energy and drive there is to both the sound and the music. No other side of any copy earned the full Three Plus White Hot grade, so this is a very special side indeed.
We didn’t run into any awful CTI originals the way we do with the typical rock record from the ’70s, but it’s the rare copy that has a real top end, or much in the way of transparency, or freedom from smear. This copy has all three, without any sacrifice in richness or Tubey Magic.
There’s some “Breezin”-like material on the second side, two years before that monster album was released, and man does it ever sound good on this copy!
Rich, full-bodied sound is not hard to find on Bad Benson; most copies had the goods in the bass and lower midrange.
On the other hand, clarity, top end, transparency and freedom from smear were hard to come by on all but a few copies. Most copies sound pretty much like your old ’70s stereo system — you know, the one you had with the three-way box speakers sitting on the floor. Fat, blurry down low, thick, opaque and smeary, that sound was everywhere. Pleasant, but not much more than that. We’ve come a long way since then. Some pressings still have that sound to a degree, but with so many audio revolutions taking place over the last twenty years, now we can get dramatically more out of even those sub-optimal copies.
Side Two
A+++, the best side of any side we played. So clear, transparent and high-rez, yet rich and tonally correct from top to bottom, this is the kind of sound we call Hard To Fault (HTF).
Side One
A+ to A++, a bit fat and smeary, but since that’s pretty much the sound of most tube equipment, it’s still very musical and enjoyable (as is most tube equipment). The details aren’t there, but the thrust of the music comes through just fine.
AMG Review
Arranged by Don Sebesky, Bad Benson is a collection of delicious, varied, and sometimes confusing choices. Benson’s own playing is precise and smooth as always, and guitarist Phil Upchurch keeps a large color palette for him to draw from, as in the funkified version of “Take Five.”
Other notables are the stellar “My Latin Brother,” which begins as a Debussy-ian impressionistic string study before becoming a heavily arpeggiated variation on the samba. Kenny Barron’s pianism here is the driving force behind a rhythm section that also includes drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Ron Carter. They give Benson a harmonic floor for one of the most inspiring solos of his career.
These intensely meaty cuts — along with Upchurch’s stellar swinging in the pocket groover “Full Compass” — are juxtaposed against ballads such as “Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams” and “The Changing World.”
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Take Five
Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
My Latin brother
Side Two
No Sooner Said Than Done
Full Compass
The Changing World
AMG Review
Arranged by Don Sebesky, Bad Benson is a collection of delicious, varied, and sometimes confusing choices. Benson’s own playing is precise and smooth as always, and guitarist Phil Upchurch keeps a large color palette for him to draw from, as in the funkified version of “Take Five.”
Other notables are the stellar “My Latin Brother,” which begins as a Debussy-ian impressionistic string study before becoming a heavily arpeggiated variation on the samba. Kenny Barron’s pianism here is the driving force behind a rhythm section that also includes drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Ron Carter. They give Benson a harmonic floor for one of the most inspiring solos of his career.
These intensely meaty cuts — along with Upchurch’s stellar swinging in the pocket groover “Full Compass” — are juxtaposed against ballads such as “Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams” and “The Changing World.”