Customer Reviews
Variety - By: The Fisherman, 18 Dec 2006 
George Benson has played a wide variety of music, so an anthology should contain a wide range of tracks ... this anthology does, so, no complaints there.
From Jazz Heaven to Smooth Jazz Hell - By: Mr. E J Boucher, 05 May 2003 
The first CD of this compilation is fantastic- great guitar playing, great production, great feeling. 'White Rabbit' is the highlight, with a fantastic spanish guitar/jazz fusion/ funk reinvention of the Jefferson Airplane classic- not as memorable as the blistering version by The Damned, but still a damn good listen. Also great are 'Shadow Dancers', 'Breezin' & 'We All Remember Wes (live)' which showcase the man's talent to the utmost. George Benson can really, really play.
The second CD on the other hand...
Well, it starts well enough, with 'Love Ballad', which remains a fantastic song despite the efforts of the producer to screw it up. And then it all goes wrong. The remainder of the songs are either a) mawkish, sentimental rubbish or b) smooth jazz. Smooth jazz, for those who don't know, is just like real jazz but with the feeling removed & replaced by an obsession with perfection & smooth, slick, & utterly intolerable production. Think Kenny G. Think pain. These are songs with names such as 'Mt. Airy Road' & 'Love All The Hurt Away'. If you are looking for a soundtrack to seduce mid-thirties divorcees with over a £7 bottle of wine from the local Tescos, this is perfect. The real low point of this disk, however, is the astonishingly dreadful version of the Beatle's soulful classic 'The Long And Winding Road'. If you have the occasion, listen to them both one after the other. This is surely a crime against art.
Also worth mentioning is the obligatory brown-nosing biography that accompanies every compilation that is released these days. It has some nice pictures, & adds nicely to the weight of the CD case. Just don't bother reading it.
So, a word of advice- by all means, buy this compilation for the quality of the first CD, & then dispose of the second CD. After doing so, attempt to get hold of one of the James Taylor Quartet compilations that has a far superior version of 'Love Ballad' on, & 'The Blue Album' by the Beatles, which is a good compilation album with a good version of 'Long & Winding Road'.
*sigh*
A must have for all Benson fans old and new - By: Kevin J. Reid, 03 Apr 2001 Even if you have some of the tracks listed, this double CD is a fantastic collection spanning 27 years of music by George Benson. The anthology covers Benson's guitar mastery (Breezin, Off Broadway etc..), his unique vocal talent (This Masquerade, New Day etc..) & the great collabrations he has had with some of music's legends (Summertime, Love All The Hurt Way etc..), being a legendin his own right of course.
Included is a colourful & detailed 50 page booklet that covers Benson's life & musical highlights.
Again a must have.
