At the height of the disco era, 1976 marked a transition as funk went pop and became the prevalent dance form in clubs and on record. It was also the year Breezin’ made jazz guitarist George Benson an international sensation.

Born in Pittsburgh, Benson grew up on the mean streets, finding salvation in music. He picked up the ukulele at age seven, was playing guitar in clubs at eight, and became a professional at 10, when he recorded the R&B single “She Makes Me Mad” as “Little Georgie” Benson for RCA subsidiary Groove Records. At 19, he followed the tenures of Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and Eddie Diehl in B-3 dynamo Jack McDuff’s band, mastering bebop and soul-jazz on the job. With McDuff from 1963 to ’65, he played on eight albums.

As a band leader, his early years saw him recording for major jazz labels. His ’64 debut was The New Boss Guitar (Prestige) at 21. In ’66, he was “rediscovered” by producer John Hammond (Charlie Christian, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin), signed to Columbia, and recorded two organ-quartet albums. He moved to Verve in ’68 to wax Giblet Gravy and Goodies, signaling a foray into pop/R&B with “Along Comes Mary,” “Walk On By,” “Sunny,” “A Natural Woman,” “Windmills of Your Mind,” and “People Get Ready.” He signed with A&M in ’68 and recorded Shape of Things to Come, Tell It Like It Is, and The Other Side of Abbey Road, his first album devoted to a specific pop act, the Beatles. The format was repeated with tributes to Nat Cole (2013), Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino (’19). These emphasized a diversity uncommon to mainstream jazz artists.

Benson’s CTI recordings (’71-’75) continued the trajectory, explored a wider musical spectrum, and were his first to garner industry attention. Repertoire included reimagined jazz (“So What,” “Take Five”), fusion (“Somewhere in the East,” “Full Compass”), Latin (“El Mar”), instrumental R&B (“All Clear,” “Body Talk,” “Dance,” “Em”), pop covers (“California Dreamin’,” “White Rabbit,” “Shell of a Man,” “Hold On! I’m Comin’”) and world music (“Little Train,” based on Villa-Lobos’ “Brachianas Basileiras No.2”), and set the stage for his breakthrough. “No Sooner Said Than Done” and “Good King Bad” foreshadowed the music and acclaim to come; the latter won a Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Through his early years, GB’s ensembles varied from small jazz combos to larger groups with horns and string-orchestra backing. He was primed for the next step and his new contract with Warner Bros in ’76.

“ Benson’s solo in “Breezin’” is definitive, exemplifying his mix of traditional jazz and modern funk over a simple vamp in a pop setting. This excerpt (3:58) depicts his multifarious playing at the solo’s climax. Note his blues-based riff in measures 1-2 answered by fast, precise bop-informed flurries in 3-6, personifying his concept of floating jazz sounds into the music when it grooves. They’re followed by pronounced major-blues lines in 7-11 replete with string bends and slurs that might be found in a B.B. King solo. The signature triple stops in 12-13 are plucked fingerstyle and telegraph his return to the theme.

Breezin’ set a high bar for all musicians and codified a different form of fusion – instrumental R&B approached from a jazz perspective with extensive virtuosic improvisation. In later years, a diluted form played by successors devolved into easy-listening “smooth jazz” and became an industry and subgenre. The arrangements presented an empathetic working band with Phil Upchurch (rhythm guitar), Jorge Dalto (piano/clavinet), Ronnie Foster (synthesizer/keyboards), Stanley Banks (bass), Ralph MacDonald (percussion) and Harvey Mason (drums) – a lineup he maintained into the ’80s, augmented by Claus Ogerman’s orchestrations. An exemplary accompanist possessing tasteful ultra-funky traits, Upchurch was a valued studio player, master of guitar processors, collaborator on Bad Benson, and the ideal foil for GB’s adventurous guitar work. Dalto and Foster pursued complimentary colors on acoustic and electric piano, synth, harpsichord and clavinet, while the rhythm section of Mason, Banks and MacDonald maintained the quintessential groove.

Produced by Tommy LiPuma, who boasted credentials in jazz, rock, pop, and R&B and gave GB’s band considerable latitude, Breezin’ was his first multi-Platinum success and earned multiple Grammy nominations and awards.

A lot of my old jazz fans were miffed when I achieved pop success,” said Benson, reflecting on Breezin’s effect on purists. “They want to be catered to. I’ve tried that approach and it doesn’t work for me. You hear, you change, the door opens and you walk through. People forget I was a pop artist when I was a kid, and an entertainer before being a jazz musician. The easiest way to involve people is by getting them to tap their feet; that’s when I can float any kind of jazz line into the music.”

In so doing, Breezin’ restored jazz as a popular foot-tapping dance medium, something that had disappeared with the swing era.

Breezin’s title track is a Bobby Womack composition first heard on Gábor Szabó’s High Contrast. GB’s rendering of theme riffs and the band’s irresistible vamp groove guaranteed its status as an instrumental hit, and future as a standard and frequently sampled piece (at least 42 times by the DJ Jazzy Jeff, Mastaplann, The Dogg Pound, et al). LiPuma had produced the original Szabó/Womack version, on which Upchurch played bass, and Benson’s version received a similar treatment (including the input of Womack) with more-prominent orchestration. Notable is GB’s signature use of triple stops – octaves with inner notes – an idiom he invented and popularized. Heard throughout his CTI output, these forms yield a three-note chord that is also a viable soloing shape, akin to Wes Montgomery’s octaves as textural melody options. They are heard in the theme (2:05), recap (4:16) and outro (4:57-5:35). In “Breezin’,” he played them fingerstyle, which facilitated alternating thumb and finger strokes for broken octaves and fast tremolo, but sometimes with hybrid picking, or strummed. Triple-stops also feature prominently in “Six to Four,” “Affirmation,” and “So This is Love?” GB’s improvisations underscore the tune’s hypnotic vamp with blues-based licks, modal melodies, and rhythmic phrases with only occasional double-timed flurries in the climax (4:01).

“Affirmation” contains a landmark Benson solo, demonstrating his bop-inspired style in a funky Latin jazz context. The opening harmonic moves in measures 1-7 are unmistakable jazz idioms. Note the altered-chord sounds in 1-2 on Bm7 (E7#9#5 into Am7) and Eb minor substitution over D7(#5#9) to cadence on Gmaj7. He uses the E7 bebop scale in 5 as well as an Fm superimposition in 6 and a full F melodic minor line as a backcycling “outside” gesture over Em7 in 7. A notable virtuosic flourish is heard in measure 8; where GB plays a blistering cascade of notes over Em7/A. This unique uncategorizable run distinguished by chromatic tones and interval jumps is articulated with his slippery legato technique and lightning-quick picking.

“This Masquerade” showcased Benson’s vocals. Written by keyboardist Leon Russell, it was the Top 10 hit that cemented his relationship with pop audiences. He began as a vocalist and sang on his Columbia albums and Other Side of Abbey Road, but, on Verve and CTI recordings, his singing was downplayed in favor of his instrumental attributes, except for “Hold On! I’m Comin’” (Good King Bad). “Masquerade” also introduced his inimitable guitar/scat technique, which became a fixture of his style, exploited in his next hit, “On Broadway,” accompanied at the intro by Dalto’s rubato piano backing. GB assumes a terse, rhythmically-based attitude in his single-note improvisations, favoring bluesy pentatonic lines with string bends and repeated notes over the simple Fm7-Bb7 vamp.

Upchurch’s fusion tune “Six to Four,” with its namesake shifting 6/8 and 4/8 meters, was ideally suited to GB’s most-engaging jazz. After a statement of the riff-based theme, Foster’s Moog solo and recap, he enters at 2:32 and tears it up in a modal/bop/funk vein over the 6/8 rock-beat and vamp of Am7-Bm7. These lines and similar moments in “Affirmation” and “So This is Love?” epitomize the balance of jazz sophistication, technical brilliance, and R&B earthiness that is his unique province.

“Affirmation,” a José Feliciano composition, received an attractive treatment that played off its inherent Latin rock groove and again transformed a cover into a jazz standard. GB’s chord-melody obligato introduces the piece, ushering the rhythm section for a theme statement, distinguished by band accompaniment reconciling Latin and funk elements enlivened with wah rhythm guitar, clavinet, and string parts. The solo remains a highlight of the album, combining bop chord outlining, modal lines, virtuosic runs, funky double- and triple-stops, and bluesy phrasing.

The Benson original “So This is Love?” sounds like a more-accessible version of his CTI modal/jazz/pop. It sports his elegant guitar theme, doubled initially by Moog synth, supported by string pads and Upchurch’s atmospheric volume swells and comping. GB’s solo (1:35) is a nearly-four-minute tour de force that grows from groove-conscious triple stops (1:35-3:01) to taut blues-oriented licks reaching greater intensity with fast pattern-dominated runs, bop/modal melodies and double-time chromatic lines before dissipating the energy and reverting to simpler melodies and light triple-stops seguing into Foster’s piano solo (5:09).

Benson’s improvisations in “Six to Four” find him navigating modal changes, a two-chord vamp of Am7-Bm7, with a wealth of ideas and are a highlight of the sessions. This example (2:55) is a case in point. He begins measures 1-6 with solid jazz lines in the spirit of Wes Montgomery and Hank Garland, mixing elements of hexatonic and bebop scales decorated with abundant chromatic passing tones. Check out the distinct arpeggio outlining, Em7 and D7, over Am7 in 3-4 and D major-blues sounds in 5-6. He develops short rhythmic motifs in 7-10 before launching a signature crammed-but-fluid chromatic passage to complete the phrase in 11-13.

The album closes with Foster’s R&B ballad “Lady.” Its arrangement steadily gathers momentum from a free-time orchestral intro and GB’s theme statement with light backing to a heavier band groove (1:25) and a rhythmically charged variation of the theme melody. GB’s solo (3:20) occurs over a change to a samba groove animated by a rock/disco beat. His improvisations combine related riff-based lines and blues licks with string bends, funky rhythmic phrases with ostinatos and drum-like patterns that only occasionally exhibit jazz complexity (4:18). The final bars return to a slow rubato feel with sustaining string pads and Upchurch’s swirling phaser colorations, and end on a cadenza (5:40) of GB’s bop-informed passage and a low-register trill – a fitting conclusion for an album that spanned a variety of sounds yet retained a unity of musical purpose.

 Breezin’ remains the best-selling jazz album in history, certified three times Platinum. It also reached #1 on the pop and R&B charts in ’76, a feat unequalled before or since; the accomplishment more profound when considering it took four days and just $45,000 to record, including the cost of London and Munich Symphony Orchestras. Boasting two hit singles, a Grammy win for Record of the Year, it elevated jazz with the public, changed jazz guitar, and established one of the genre’s most-important innovators. In the wake of Breezin’, GB toured with Minnie Riperton, guested on Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (“Another Star”), recorded “The Greatest Love of All” for Muhammad Ali’s biopic, The Greatest, and became an icon of the art form.

“Breezin’… was the first time I recorded with a Polytone amp as well as my new Johnny Smith guitar,” Benson recalled in 2000. “It was the only guitar for that project. I was taking a chance, but the results are now history.”

In ’77, he developed the Ibanez GB-10, adapting the floating mini-humbucker configuration of the Smith guitar on a smaller 14.5″ body. It was the company’s longest-running model, and was followed by Thomastik GB string sets and, in the new millennium, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and Twin amps bearing his name.

Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His new book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar, and a list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.