George Benson
Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole
Concord ***1/2
A seventieth birthday album by a bona fide jazz great paying tribute to an icon of the music, history both in the personal and musical sense are centre stage on Inspiration with lush strings provided by a 42-piece orchestra and guests from Broadway and the TV talent show pop firmament plus Wynton Marsalis superb on a swinging ‘Unforgettable’, Inspiration finds itself in a mainstream showbiz environment leveraged with a swinging jazz feel throughout. It’s an album you would have thought could not have been made any more. Benson’s career moved to a new high profile level when the guitarist became known, like the still much missed Nat Cole before him switched from being known as a pianist, primarily as a singer; but as a guitarist Benson has a genius sound, like a natural extension of Freddie Green, and the glimpses along the way here are of “stop the traffic dead in its tracks" quality as ever. Those octave runs and that doubling joyful scat vocal along for the ride in Benson’s inimitable fashion never pall. Inspiration make no mistake, though, is a glossy affair, and the Disney veneer can obscure what’s going on musically at times (the duet with Judith Hill on ‘Too Young’ for instance), but not often. Highlights? Benson’s romantic duet with Idina Menzel on ‘When I Fall in Love’ is just lovely; and ‘Walkin’ My Baby’ has an impossibly relaxed Sunday afternoon feel to it. The flute part at the beginning of ‘Nature Boy’ sets up Benson’s best vocal of the album, as poised as a wanna-be singer could only dream of; and the album contains some very fine arrangements with a Nelson Riddle-like treatment of ‘Just One of Those Things’ one example of the general approach and where the arrangements have been pitched. The lyric in ‘Ballerina’ with its advice to the dancer performing to a thousand people who’ve come to see the show to "just ignore the chair that’s empty in the second row," and "dance on and on and on" is advice Benson himself has taken to heart since he captured the wider music public’s imagination in the Breezin’ era. His appeal spans the generations from the tail end of the Golden Age through the soul-jazz and smooth jazz years to today. You can imagine Inspiration as the soundtrack to a family gathering or celebration and on that level it works perfectly in a special birthday year for GB bookended by ‘Mona Lisa’ that stands for then and above all, now. SG
Released on 10 June