George Benson - Best Of George Benson: The Instrumentals (1997)

Tracklist

01 - My Heart Is Dancing
02 - Breezin'
03 - Mimosa
04 - Dinorah, Dinorah
05 - Being With You
06 - Valdez In The Country
07 - Affirmation
08 - Tenderly
09 - We All Remember Wes
10 - Weekend In L.A.
11 - That's Right

personnel :

George Benson - vocals, guitar, electric guitar
Earl Klugh - classical guitar
Kim Hutchcroft, Lee "Shot" Williams - flute, saxophone
Hubert Laws - flute
Kirk Whalum - saxophone
Jerry Hey - trumpet
Randy Brecker - flugelhorn
Bob James - piano
Greg Phillinganes - electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer
Clare Fischer - electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano
Jorge Dalto - electric piano, Clavinet, keyboards
Ronnie Foster - electric piano, keyboards, mini-Moog synthesizer
Richard Tee, Robbie Buchanan - electric piano, keyboards
Ricky Peterson - organ, keyboards
Herbie Hancock - keyboards, synthesizer
Dave Grusin, Hilary James , Neil Larsen, Rob Mounsey, Barnaby Finch - keyboards
John "J.R." Robinson , Harvey Mason, Sr. , Michael Bland , Omar Hakim, Carlos Vega - drums
Paulinho Da Costa, Ralph MacDonald - percussion
Patti Austin - background vocals

Anyone who despaired about the total lack of instrumentals on Warners' unrepresentative The Best of George Benson will be overjoyed by this sequel, Best of George Benson: The Instrumentals, which contains nothing but instrumentals (that may have been the game plan all along). Admittedly, the instrumental pickings in the Warner catalog are slimmer than, say, those for Benson's pre-"This Masquerade" recordings on CBS/CTI and A&M/Verve, and the style is often slanted toward the kind of easy jazz heard on "The Wave" radio format. But Benson could still create funky fireworks with his guitar on tunes like "Dinorah, Dinorah," "Affirmation," and "Weekend in L.A.," and Benson's off-the-cuff fluency is shown off to stunning effect all alone on "Tenderly." The range of albums is more inclusive than that of the earlier set, spanning Benson's long Warner period and even reaching out to the funky-butt title track from his first GRP album, That's Right. If you combine this album and the vocal Best Of collection, you'll get an excellent summary of George Benson over a span of 20 years. ~Richard S. Ginell