George Benson stays in the shallow end to please fans
George Benson stays in the shallow end to please fans
By Devi M. Asmarani
JAKARTA (JP): Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a number
of musicians and singers found that crossing the increasingly
thin line between jazz and the more commercially viable pop was a
good way to get people to buy their records, pleasing record
labels to no end.
This era bred a group of stars who, despite their overwhelming
musical talents, succumbed to hollow love songs and vain dance
tunes, making them more famous for their hits than their skills.
One of these stars is George Benson, who performed two shows
here at the Mulia Senayan Hotel on Thursday night. The shows were
part of Benson's 38 appearances throughout Asia and Australia.
Benson possesses all the skills a good musician should have.
The eight-time Grammy award winner is a package of musical
talent, a great performer and also has the ability to write his
own songs.
He is one of the best jazz guitarists around as well as a
versatile vocalist -- a combination rarely found in today's jazz
and pop worlds.
For most of his fans -- especially those in Indonesia --
Benson is less a serious musician than he is a person who
brilliantly delivers those very same hollow love songs and vain
dance tunes.
However, there is another groups of fans, including this
writer, who longs to hear Benson play some real jazz.
He is not unaware of this. Once in an interview he admitted he
felt obligated to please everyone.
"My most successful records are those where I've been the most
versatile; when I play in different genres.
"I can't make bums anymore, where I'm working in one style. I
always end up leaving out one portion of my audience.
"Besides my live shows have always had variety. That's what my
fans love," he said.
That sums up his Thursday performance in Jakarta.
Fully aware the thirty-something and ups -- including high-
ranking government official Robby Djohan -- who made up his
audience were the types who would sing along to his 1980's pop
hit Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You, he did not stray too
far from this style.
The 15 songs he played were combinations of pop hits and cover
songs, with the exception of two smooth instrumental jazz numbers
filled with his trademark improvisational singing.
He picked up the guitar on these occasions and really got into
the numbers, but most of the time he played songs like The
Greatest Love of All, the lyrics of which are known by heart and
recited by the audience.
Despite his talk of having to nurture polarized fans, there
was little room for the jazz fans in the audience.
Veteran performer that he is, he sensed the psychology of his
audience. He understood hits like Love x Love, Turn Your Love
Around, Kisses in the Moonlight and Give Me the Night
would serve as a tool to mesmerize the crowd, but too much
lengthy and abstract instrumental improvisation would make them
restless.
There is no one to blame for this but Benson's own voice, for
it is hard not to be mesmerized at times by his rich, soulful and
mature voice, coming from the gospel tradition.
His famed scat singing matches that of another jazz-pop
singer, Al Jareau, who never made it as big in the pop industry
as Benson.
One could not help but feeling a bit sympathetic for Benson
during Thursday's performance, however.
It was apparent the 55-year-old singer was a bit worn out from
his exhausting daily performances in different countries -- this
week alone he has performed in Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur
and Jakarta, with an appearance scheduled for Friday in Perth.
At the beginning of the show, his energy was a bit tempered
and his voice was rather subdued.
"I think it's important for us to be able to let people see us
live, to know that we're not just some tunes on the record and on
CDs. So I get a chance to see them, they get a chance to see me,"
he said after emerging from a cocktail party shortly before the
show.
A sign that he was trying to "meet" his fans was when he
covered his "favorite song of all", Nat King Cole's
Unforgettable, in a voice almost indistinguishable from the
legendary Cole's.
After he finished the song, he asked the cheering audience,
"you want to hear something really crazy?"
That was when he sang the song again, only this time in a
voice almost indistinguishable from Natalie Cole's, Nat's
daughter who redid the song as a duet with her late father's
voice in the early 1990s.
But with so many countries to visit in so little time, one
wonders if he and his fans will actually have the chance for some
quality time together.
At any rate, when Benson performed as his encore an extended
version of On Broadway, the resentment of having purchased a
costly ticket -- ranging from Rp 150,000 to Rp 350,000 -- for a
mere hour and a half show should have abated.
Undoubtedly, the song is one of those all-time classics, a
memorable tune from his successful 1976 album Breezin, marking
his crossover to rhythm and blues from jazz.
Brilliantly using his voice as an instrument in the dynamic
song and mixing some Latin rhythms in the middle of the tune, the
song showed the strength of Benson's band: drummer Michael Whit,
percussionist Dannis Rosales Saucedo, bassist Stanley Banks,
guitarist Michael Philip O'Neill, keyboardist Thomas Rax Hall and
pianist David Jay Witham.
But however nit-picking you are about some of the show's flaws
-- rather poor sound system, the fact that he did not sing his
1976 hit This Masquerade -- in the end, the performance was much
better than you can expect to see in this city anytime soon.
And that will probably be enough for organizers to invite
Benson back.