Customer Reviews

Breezin (Dlx)

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

 

 

Usually "smooth jazz" stinks, IMHO. But if you reprogram your brain and listen to this CD as pop, not jazz, it becomes quite good.

Best track by far on the CD is "Down Here On The Ground", just a lovely song with rhythm, melody and harmony.

Now, when will someone reissue the stuff that Benson did with Benny Goodman, starting with the PBS tribute to John Hammond that brought them together.

I still remember the first time a friend of mine played this for me, insisting that this was something I just had to hear. It was my introduction to smooth jazz and I've been a big fan ever since. This recording not only propelled George Benson to stardom but propelled smooth jazz to the mainstream. A must for any jazz collector. This album is so smooth, sexy and breezy but the music is not elevator music but just a beautiful recording.

Just in time for the 25th anniversary of it's original release comes this excellent reissue of George Benson's classic breakthrough album "Breezin'". All this time later the ability for this album to bring a smile to my face and have me playing air guitar along with it hasn't diminished at all. The six tracks on "Breezin'" are GB at his best and feature great support from the likes of Ronnie Foster, Phil Upchurch, Harvey Mason, Jorge Dalto, Stanley Banks, and beautiful, supportive string arrangements from Claus Ogerman. This reissue also features three bonus tracks that were not apart of the original album, a studio version of "Down Here On The Ground", which a live version turned up on 1978's "Weekend In LA", a funky instrumental called "Shark Bite" which was released as the B-side of George's 1985 single "20/20", and the single edit of "This Masquerade" is included. A terrific sounding remaster that displays none of the muddy flatness of the original CD issue and insightful liner notes written by Urban Network journalist A. Scott Galloway make this classic album everything it should be on CD. Nice job Rhino!!!! All I can say now is the rest of his Warner Bros. catalog should get this treatment. IT DESERVES IT!!!!

I have owned this album since it came out on vinyl and always liked it. When it came out, one of my friends described it as sounding like music that you would listen to in a convertible while you were riding down a mountain road. I never forgot her description. So this year when we bought my wife a convertible I got the Breezin CD for her. My friend was right. This is perfect music for a convertible.

George Benson's Breezin' was a landmark album in jazz music. It introduced a style of jazz that was inflected with r&b stylings that made it appealing to a mass audience who necessarily didn't like the genre. The album hit number one on the Top 200 & r&b charts and stayed at number one on the jazz charts for over a year. The album was spurred on by Mr. Benson's smooth and elegant cover of "This Masquerade" which peaked at number 10 and went on to win the 1976 Grammy for Record of the Year. But in addition to that great track, the album had five other gems including the appropriately titled title track which has a light, airy Latin vibe, the straight jazz of "Six To Four" and the sophistication of "Lady". The remastered version contains three additional tracks including a great song, "Shark Bite" and the single edit of "This Masquerade" which palls in comparison to the full length version.

I clearly remember becoming aware of George Benson, on Saturday night in the Summer of 1976. I had managed to ask a beautiful, Post Grad coed form BYU to dance, and trying to sound sophisticated I remarked "Stevie Wonder has such a great voice" Those beautiful brown eyes looked into mine and she replied "That's not Stevie Wonder".

Although I felt foolish, my lovely dance partner, educated me about George Benson, the next Monday I bought "Breezin" and have been a fan of George Benson and Smooth Jazz ever since.

At the time I remember, at the beginning of my Jazz education that this album was controversial, in the world of jazz, because Mr. Benson was told he couldn't sing on the album, because jazz fans would not accept him as a serious musician if he did. Lucky for the world that he sang anyway and we have had over thirty years of not only his unbelievable skills on the guitar, but one of the most full beautiful voices of any male singer ever recorded.

A must have album for fans of Smooth Jazz.