Customer Reviews

After Hours

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

"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.