After Hours [Import, Live]

George Benson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 15, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Universe Italy
• ASIN: B00006RYC3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,632 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Although George Benson was 30 years old when he recorded this date, he was still far from the commercial fortune and success that would come with albums such as Breezin', Weekend In L.A. and most of all Give Me The Night. He was nonetheless already a jazz artist with a gifted touch. This live session recorded on a Sunday afternoon at the New Jersey Club Casa Caribe in 1973, is probably his last jazz date until his comeback in 1989 with the Big Boss Band Album (featuring the ex-Count Basie Band). Benson's playing is in excellent form, delivering a stunning series of standards. The rhythm session here is also top quality, with pianist Mickey Tucker (previously with Sonny Stitt, Art Blakey and Junior Cook), bassist George Duvivier (who recorded with Bud Powell and Lester Young) and drummer Al Harewood, member of the former US3, trio of Horace Parlan and companion of Blue Note stars Grant Green, Stanley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Can't hear the guitar, November 9, 2005

By 

Ben Fernandez (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Hours (Audio CD)

Benson's playing may be in top form, but the recording of it definitely isn't. The keyboards sound great, and so do the drums and the bass player, but you can hardly hear the guitar. George sounds like he is playing way off in a corner somewhere. It's like they only gave him one microphone, and its on his voice, not his guitar. Not good.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Playing, November 21, 2005

By 

Kevman (White Plains, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Hours (Audio CD)

This is real jazz just before Benson entered the more funk CTI era. Strong quartet with extended playing on each track. The sound quality is good for a 1973 live album - unlike a previous review, the guitar comes out loud and clear on my stereos.

4.0 out of 5 stars "Live" and Dangerous, February 2, 2010

By 

Mark W. Mckenzie (Cary, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Hours (Audio CD)

"Live" is the operative word here. Both the performances and the recording quality are raw, and not always pretty. But the overall impression is that "you are there" and this is the real thing - a quartet living dangerously, on the edge, and over the edge at times. This is a 2002 release of a 1973 performance, and it seems like a George Benson bootleg album, warts and all.

The quartet is Benson on guitar (and one vocal), Mickey Tucker on piano, George Duvivier on bass, and Al Harewood on drums. So you've got four seasoned, hard-bop fellows stretching out on a variety of nice tunes. The playing is stunning at times, always reaching, with plenty of energy.

I have no idea if the cover art is a picture of the actual club, but you get a real sense of being a fly on the wall of some crowded little smoked-filled dive, with bottles and glasses clinking, and with a hot jazz combo squeezed into the corner.