String strummer: Marcus miller

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zondag 18 augustus 2013

George Benson with Marcus Miller

jazz musician; guitarist; singer

Personal Information

Born March 22, 1943, in Pittsburgh, PA; wife's name Johnnie; seven children, three deceased.

Career

Guitarist, vocalist, and composer. Played electric guitar in quartet of jazz musician Jack McDuff, 1962-65; worked as sideman and led own quartets as guitarist and vocalist, 1965-; signed recording contract with Columbia label, 1965; worked with producer Creed Taylor, first at A&M Records, then at CTI, 1968-74; signed with Warner Brothers label, 1976; released Breezin', one of the top-selling jazz albums of all time, 1976; moved to GRP label, 1995; released Standing Together, 1998.

Life's Work

George Benson is one of the few musicians who has successfully crossed the divide between jazz and black popular music, neither ignoring the commercial possibilities in jazz nor abandoning his artistry when he achieved commercial success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His hit recordings featured his light yet expressive singing voice, and to the general public he is known as well for his vocal work as for his guitar skills. But Benson came out of the jazz world, where he had a loyal cadre of fans, and returned to jazz when his connections with that world threatened to become stretched too thin. He is one of the figures most responsible for the presence of sophisticated jazz musicianship in the world of black popular music generally.

Born on March 22, 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Benson showed prodigious talent from an early age, winning a singing contest when he was only four years old and enjoying a short career as a child radio performer under the name of "Little Georgie Benson." He started playing the guitar when he was eight, but it was as a vocalist that he spent much of his vast musical energy as a teenager, organizing and performing with a succession of rhythm-and-blues and rock bands around Pittsburgh. He made recordings for RCA Victor's X Records subsidiary in the middle 1950s. But Benson's stepfather encouraged his instrumental efforts by constructing a guitar for him, and in his late teens he began to concentrate exclusively on guitar. Seeking out the music of modern jazz's golden age, he became more and more interested in jazz, and was particularly inspired by recordings of saxophonist Charlie Parker and guitarists Charlie Christian and Grant Green.

Discovered by John Hammond

In 1961 Benson jumped to the national stage when he joined the group backing jazz organist Jack McDuff. He played and recorded with McDuff for four years. Then he struck out on his own: he moved to New York City, then the capital of the jazz universe, and formed his own band. There Benson made two acquaintances who proved crucial in setting him on the path to jazz stardom: guitarist Wes Montgomery, whose soft tone and graceful octave playing provided Benson with his most important stylistic inspiration, and Columbia Records producer and executive John Hammond, whose unerring eye for talent brought such seminal musicians as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to the label. Impressed by Benson's growing list of sideman credits, which included work with such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard and later Miles Davis, Hammond signed Benson to Columbia in 1965.

Benson's first two Columbia albums were It's Uptown and Benson Burner. His 1960s LPs, two of which were produced by Hammond himself, were in the main bop-influenced vein of the jazz of the time, and they garnered the guitarist, who was still in his early twenties, plenty of positive attention in the jazz community. Searching for wider public recognition, Benson switched labels several times, landing first with Verve (1967), and then with A&M (1968) and CTI (1970-71). He came under the influence of jazz producer Creed Taylor, who had also worked with Montgomery, and who encouraged Benson's natural versatility, backing him with various ensembles and cutting vocal tracks with him that reawakened Benson's interest in singing.

Success with Pop Vocal Track

It was another label move that paved the way for Benson's breakthrough to mass success. Signing with Warner Brothers in late 1975, he released the album Breezin'; the following year. While much of the album reprised the light guitar-and-strings sound that was common in Benson's CTI work, he took two great and accessible steps forward. First, Benson included on the album afrankly pop-oriented vocal, the Leon Russell composition "This Masquerade." The song reached the Number One position on jazz and R&B charts and drove the album to the same position on the pop charts. Benson's second innovation on Breezin'; was the introduction of what would become his trademark: scat singing along with his guitar, doubling it at the interval of an octave.

The combination was irresistible, and by some accounts Breezin', which won three Grammy awards, became the best selling jazz album of all time. Benson's pop vocals were self-assured and pleasant; he was in front of the curve which would lead to the highly successful, jazz-inflected "Quiet Storm" formats in black radio of the 1980s. The scat singing seemed to connote a satisfying kind of oneness between Benson and his guitar. "When I pick up the guitar, it's an extension of what I am," Benson told Guitar Player magazine. A series of commercially successful albums followed, most of which emphasized Benson's singing. All six of Benson's Warner Brothers albums of the late 1970s and early 1980s were certified gold (sales of 500,000 copies), and four of them went platinum (sales of 1,000,000 copies). Benson credited his success in part to his conversion to the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Like other jazz players who have followed commercially oriented paths, Benson has taken criticism from jazz purists who felt that he had abandoned his early artistry. Writing about 1978's In Your Eyes, for example, Richard S. Ginell observed in the All-Music Guide to Jazz that "[f]or jazz fans, Benson's albums at this point become a search for buried treasure, for his guitar time is extremely limited." Benson apparently took the criticism to heart, for in 1989 he made a full-blast return to jazz, recording Tenderly, an album of standards, with the legendary jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, and touring with Tyner's trio that year. In 1990 he recorded the album Big Boss Band with Count Basie's orchestra.

Moved Between Jazz and Pop

The music he made when he returned to jazz showcased part of what was best about Benson's music: his versatility. He was equally at home with small ensembles, with a big band, with a string section, with hard bop, with Latin-inflected selections, with popular stylings. Through the 1990s Benson, his popularity assured, appeared in a wide variety of concert situations, and continued to manage well the balance he had achieved between the worlds of jazz and pop. He moved to the jazz-oriented GRP label in 1996, releasing the album That's Right, a quiet-storm-styled work, and following it up 1998's Standing Together in the same smooth-jazz vein.

For all his success, Benson's life has been shadowed by personal tragedy. He has lost three of his seven sons, one to kidney failure, one to crib death, and one to gunshot injuries stemming from a bar fight. His losses led to an unusual commission in 1998: he was asked by father Mohammed Al Fayed to write s song in commemoration of Dodi Al Fayed, who died along with his friend Princess Diana of England in a 1997 automobile crash in Paris. "During the writing, I asked my wife to come listen to what I had written," Benson was quoted as saying in Jet. "But when I got to certain parts, it became too difficult. My lips were trembling. I was thinking about my own losses and couldn't get past it. It stopped me cold."

Awards

Many Grammy awards, including Record of the Year 1977; Best Instrumental Performance, 1977; Best R&B Male Vocal Performance, 1980; Best Jazz Vocal Performance, 1980; and Best Pop Instrumental, 1983. Platinum and gold record certifications for numerous albums.

Works

Selected discography

George Benson/Jack McDuff, Prestige, 1965.
It's Uptown, Columbia, 1965.
Benson Burner, Columbia, 1966.
The George Benson Cookbook, Columbia, 1966.
Giblet Gravy, Verve, 1967.
The Shape of Things to Come, A&M, 1968.
The Other Side of Abbey Road, A&M, 1969.
Beyond the Blue Horizon, CTI, 1971.
White Rabbit, CTI, 1972.
Bad Benson, CTI, 1974.
Breezin', Warner Bros., 1976.
In Flight, Warner Bros., 1977.
Weekend in L.A., Warner Bros., 1978.
Livin' Inside Your Love, Warner Bros., 1979.
Give Me the Night, Warner Bros., 1980.
In Your Eyes, Warner Bros., 1983.
20-20, Warner Bros., 1984.
Twice the Love, Warner Bros., 1988.
Tenderly, Warner Bros., 1989.
Big Boss Band (with the Count Basie Orchestra), Warner Bros., 1990.
Love Remembers, Warner Bros., 1993.
That's Right, GRP, 1996.
Standing Together, GRP, 1998.

maandag 25 februari 2013

Richard Bona interview for iBass Magazine

RICHARD BONA

Richard Bona has been recognized as one of the planet’s five revelations of the past decade. A complete artist, an absolute master of his art, and a melodist of rare elegance and sensuality, he’s also a poignant singer, and a member of that exclusive club, "the world’s best bassists.”

For the past fifteen years, Richard Bona, dubbed “The African Sting,” has been displaying his smile, humour, serenity and grace wherever he’s travelled. His first two albums revealed a wonderful storyteller, a surprising musician, and a spellbinding vocalist. His unique style is situated at the crossroads of a horde of influences - jazz, bossa nova, pop music, afro-beat, traditional song, and funk.

Munia, the title of his third CD, actually means “tale” in the Douala language (part of the Bantu group, one of the 220 dialects spoken in the Cameroon.) There’s a contained emotion, unsettling charm, soft magic, and keen, blinding flashes to be found on the program of this elegant, “crossbreed” record whose release, due on September 30th, will be followed by a European tour that includes a concert on November 5th at La Cigale in Paris.

The grandson of a famous percussionist and singer, Richard Bona was born in 1967 in Minta, a village in the center of Cameroon perched on the plateau of Adamaoua, between the small shrubs of the savannah and the virgin forest. His music, too, can be compared with the colors, twittering and profusion of the thousands of species of birds that live there. Music was his environment from the day he uttered his first cry. His mother and four sisters sang in the local church every Sunday, and the little boy joined them on the rostrum when he was five. Sounds, harmony and song were a genuine passion for Richard. The boy was remarkably ingenious, and not only made reed flutes for himself, but also a large balafon, wooden percussion instruments, and his own 12-string guitar. He did so with whatever he could find, like any other kid in a poor country: Bona laughs, “I hung around the workshops where they repaired bicycles, and as soon as the guys turned their backs I’d put brake-cables in my pocket for my prototype.” He rehearsed for eight to twelve hours a day, and also spent part of his time appearing as a singer and multi-instrumentalist in a whole range of religious ceremonies, from weddings and christenings to private and public celebrations. One important detail: Richard had a highly unusual gift - he only has to look intently at someone playing, and he can learn the instrument.

He was eleven when he went to Douala with his father; the sprawling, sea-port city was the second largest in the country, with almost two million inhabitants. He was quick to find his first job: as a guitarist with a dance-group. Bona recalls, “At the time, in West Africa, the guitar was the instrument in fashion; there was no salvation without it.” In 1980 the French owner of a local club gave him the task of setting up a little, jazz-inspired group (with soul-jazz and jazz-rock leanings), and he was entrusted with a collection of some five hundred vinyl albums so that he could “soak in it to the maximum.” So Richard discovered jazz, the freedom, complexity and virtuosity of the music invented by the American descendants of his forebears. “That’s how I came across the Jaco Pastorius album, the first one, the one with his name on it, [Jaco Pastorius, Columbia, 1976] and I never looked back. When I started listening to it I wondered for a moment if I’d got the speed wrong, I thought I was playing it at 45 rpm instead, and I even took a look. Before Jaco, I’d never thought of playing bass.”

In 1989, when he was 22, the young man left Africa for Paris, where he quickly built a solid reputation playing with Didier Lockwood, Marc Fosset and André Ceccarelli, and taking part in studio sessions with musicians of the stature of Manu Dibango, Salif Keita and Joe Zawinul (My People, 1992.)

Like singer Angélique Kidjo (whom he also accompanied), who’d gone to New York to live with her family, Richard crossed the ocean in 1995 and settled in Manhattan. He quickly hooked up with Joe Zawinul again, and was invited to accompany him on a world tour.

His name began to circulate among the “pros”. Bona reflects on life in New York: “New York is a 120% jazz city. As soon as a door opens, you have to jump through.” Noticed in a midtown club by lyricist Jake Holmes (one of Harry Belafonte’s old associates), a few weeks later Richard was named Belafonte’s musical director, bassist and arranger. A “fabulous” eighteen-month adventure ensued for Bona alongside this particularly endearing character who’d been a great friend of the late Martin Luther King, Jr.; a notable, sincere combatant in the Black struggle for Civil Rights; and a major figure in “crossbred” music before his time (he’d already been mixing soul and calypso, folk and Creole song, jazz and rhumba in the Sixties…).

Soon thereafter, Bona became one of the most in-demand collaborators in music, working with a remarkable array of artists, such as Michael Brecker, Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Chucho Valdès, Mike Stern, Larry Coryell, Steve Gadd, Joni Mitchell, Harry Connick Jr., Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham, Queen Latifah, Jacky Terrasson, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Zawinul (again, when Bona sang and played bass and percussion on his World Tour 98 and the CD Faces & Places), Pat Metheny and George Benson .

On the advice of Branford Marsalis, Richard was chosen to play on the first compact disc by Frank McComb, the singer from Buckshot Le Fonque (the funky side of the elder of the Marsalis Brothers). The album was released by Columbia and a few months later, still under Branford’s patronage, the label gave Richard the chance to add his first album as leader to his discography.

Scenes From My Life was released in 1998, and included such luminaries as Michael Brecker, Omar Hakim and Jean-Michel Pilc (among others). One might mention some of the comments greeting this record at the time: “We don’t like showing we’re impressed by the last kid to be discovered in New York. But even the most recalcitrant change their minds when the kid’s Richard Bona.” (Newsweek). “An unexpected masterpiece, the birth certificate of an artist who prefers to sing rather than knit the ready-to-wear suits of the most gifted bassist of his generation.” (Gérald Arnaud in Jazzman). “Richard Bona is a great singer, not a great bassist who sings. A singer and a composer. Richard Bona has just made a great record. A record of great diversity.” (Jackie Berroyer in Vibrations).

Bona reflects: “Music doesn’t stop at a bass solo,” he says, “demonstrations aren’t in my temperament. In France people have heard of me essentially as an accompanist. Who’d have let me sing? Fact is, I’ve been a singer since I was a child, and here I was given that chance.” Wrapped in pared-down arrangements, and stealthily carried by his striking voice, these twelve songs are simple and subtle reflections of Richard himself.

Reverence (Autumn 2001), his second Columbia outing, was more intimate, and confirmed the hopes placed in Scenes From My Life. It was a gracious salute addressed to the world, and dealt with problems and personal good fortunes as universal subjects: faith, communication between human beings… Better than that, the young man threw out a real call for people to live life more slowly, and so take fuller advantage of life.

Munia, Bona’s third album and his debut recording for Verve, is a multi-faceted, dancing work of absolute freshness, and perhaps his most eclectic, thrilling album to date. Munia showcases Bona’s singing, composing and arranging, in addition to his work on bass and piccolo bass, acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, vocoder, keyboards and percussion. “In New York, where I live with my son Leo, I feed on any number of things outside my own culture.”

Munia, and its eleven titles in collaboration with drummer Nathaniel Townsley, keyboardist George Whitty, pianist George Colligan and saxophonist Aaron Heick, is the best translation of this frame of mind, undulating from one genre to another, yet it never interrupts one’s listening. Munia also boasts appearances by several notable guests: Salif Keita (vocals), Djely Moussa Conde (kora) and Bailo Ba (traditional flutes) on the brisk “Kalabancoro,”; Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums (the very jazzy “Painting A Wish”); or the virtuoso acoustic guitar of Romero Lubambo on the lively, cheerful bossa nova “Bona Petit” (one of the rare pieces on which Bona sings in French). There’s also tropical rock (“Balemba na Bwemba”), two extraordinary ballads (“Dina Lam” and “Muto Bye Bye”), a brilliant rhumba (“Couscous”), and an exhilarating fusion piece (“Engingilaye”). Taken together, with Richard Bona, we once again have a recording that’s a pure marvel. There’s really nothing more to add.