Contemporary jazz and smooth r&b have never seen a figure as successful and versatile as George Benson. This show not only demonstrates his utter mastery of Wes Montgomery-style guitar playing, but also showcases the strong, flexible singing that ultimately exposed him to a mass audience. Here, he sings such monster hits as �Turn Your Love Around,� his concert show-stopper �On Broadway,� and often scat-sings while soloing, his trademark crowd-pleasing trick. Additionally, he takes on �The Greatest Love of All,� a song best known via Whitney Houston�s version, but that aficionados consider to be effectively owned by Benson.

Although he has said that he wanted to be considered a singer more than anything else, Philadelphian Benson was first known as a prodigy on the guitar, joining Brother Jack McDuff�s Organ Trio in 1962 at the age of 19. By 1965, he formed his own band, and quickly became recognized as Wes Montgomery�s heir to the jazz guitar throne, sitting in on Miles Davis� Miles in the Sky. For the next ten years, he recorded countless records as a leader and accompanist, and was one of the jazz world�s biggest draws.

Then he released Breezin� in 1976, which, while still focused on his guitar playing, included his hit rendition of Leon Russell�s �This Masquerade.� From that point on, Benson became known to millions as the original smooth r&b vocalist, cutting enormous hit albums such as the Quincy Jones-produced Give Me The Night. Since then, he�s maintained a dual career as a balladeer par excellence and one of the great living jazz guitarists.