Customer Reviews

Standing Together

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Many fans of the Benson of the seventies are horrified with this man's latest works. I would rather say that his two latest albums show a strong recovery, after changing of record label and several years of "dryness". He's much into singing, but also plays the guitar the way he has always done it, setting a trend, as said by other reviewers. And he definitely is looking in new directions, since he was planning to record some things with latin musicians for his next album (or at least, that is what he said on an interview in Spain). "Poquito spanish" should therefore only be an appetizer of future recordings.

Is Benson a Jazz artist ? ("C-smooth" !) Is benson a pop artist ? ("Standing together", "All I know" !) Is he a funk man ? ("Keep rollin" !) Well, he is probably a bit of everything in this album ("You can do it baby" !), and makes a fusion of it (word which, according to his words, is all right, as long as it doesn't go with "confusion").

Just misses the 5 stars because a couple of tracks are a bit too "pasty".

I'm a young head who isn't really into too much jazz, but everytime i'm studing or doing something where i have to concentrate I like to listen to jazz. This CD is a must have. Most times I only listen to jazz that's a remake of a song I already know, but this one is different. For all those who like and don't like jazz, give this a listen. it will have you hooked by the time you hear the second song on the CD. get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This CD reminds me of "Benson Back To The Basics". I could listen to this CD over and over again because of the wonderful versatility in choice of material, musicians and just overall listening appeal. A must have for Georgie Benson fans.

All I have to say is WELCOME BACK George..we missed you.. All the cuts are great.. I really like Poquito Spanish-Poquito Funk. I would really like to see him do more Spanish-Latin Jazz...

Definitively one of the best works of George Benson, made very well by the master of smooth jazz.

Definitely one of Benson's best

This album is a very fine masterpiece as others from George Benson, but more important is that he shows he hasn't lost the magic touch of the way to make interpretations and compositions from his own. There's no doubt about we are fortune to have a real music's legend alive and playing nice music for all over the years.

Mario Moya

I cannot tell you how many times I walked right past this album with no jolt. So today I just picked it up and listened to it. Whatever anyone else says all I look for,same as my friend Henrique is to hear George Benson play and sing his head off because the man can DO IT TO DEATH! Always has and likely always will. True he's made his share of musical mistakes but this isn't one of them and,even on his lesser ones I usually say if it wasn't him it would be worthless trash. So here we have George in the late 90's,smack in the middle of the smooth jazz era. Yeah George was one of the people who influenced the genre but NONE of the people I've heard doing these bland copies of his just aren't gettin it quite right. On every track of this album,every time he starts strumming his axe it's full of blues,full of soul and FULL of funk! He learned all the right stuff from Wes Montgomery and carried it into his own great sound decade after decade. Not only that but this man can FLAT FOOTED SING in the exact same way. On this album you get one bottom heavy,slow burning uptempo jazz-funk groove after another in "C-Smooth","Fly By Night","Keep Rollin" as well as the faster "Cruise Control" and the great latin groove "Poquito Spanish,Poquito Funk",complete with some great jive-rapping by George and his band in the middle in the finest soul jazz tradition. On the title song,"All I Know","Still Waters" and "Back To Love" you'll find George and his great band,including bassist Alex M and Larry Kimpel locking down the bottom and percussionist Lenny Castro really adding that little dash of spice on the accents,going for that great pop-soul-jazz/vocal thing George has been doing all his career and has never stopped for an instant. Produced by Tommy LiPuma was usual this album is thankfully free of some of the heavy overproduction that had detracted from a few of his otherwise excellent classic albums. Also it's not underdone:rather than indulge in an excersise in naturalness he's got this strong keyboard arrangments to keep things from getting at all empty and hollow. In the huge and also very empty musical scene that was late 90's smooth jazz this album truly stands out not only as a great highlite in this mans career but also as a great example of recent jazz soul/funk with a contemporary twist. The man really didn't need to even play anymore even at this point careerwise but,the fact that he was still giving up his groove for the musical world and the people to hear is a joy and pleasure for all concerned.

He (George Benson) has ALWAYS been known for doing something just a little bit different from most of your standard jazz artists (Go ALL the way back to when he first started recording...And you'll understand what I'm talkin' about). In most cases it has proven to work for Mr. Benson, on this project...It's alright...A FEW Stand Out Tracks like: "C-Smooth", The #62 Billboard Charting Single "Standing Together", "Poquito Spanish, Poquito Funk". Listeners of New Wave Jazz will love it! Die-Hard Jazz Fans will NOT be moved, The one's who got into him during the early Warner Brothers Records years will be stuck in the middle. In short George Benson needs to find 'That' zone...And stay there for a while so he can get his longtime fans back again. And guess what?....He can do it!!!

It's been several years since I purchased anything by George Benson. I wasnn't really sure what he was doing these days. Well, I can tell you, he's doing better than ever. You can't go wrong with one of his cd's, even if you've never heard one single track; you won't be sorry. Track 4, "C-Groove" was the only cut I had heard before I purchased the cd, but track 1,5, and 7 are by far my favorites, then comes track 9, 2, 3, 8,...well, the entire cd is great. You won't be disappointed if you're a Benson fan.