Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 05/22/2007
Run Time: 54:01
Having taken
Benson along with him when he founded
CTI,
Creed Taylor merely leaves the guitarist alone with a small group on his first release. The payoff is a superb
jazz session where
Benson rises to the challenge of the turbulent rhythm section of
Jack DeJohnette and
Ron Carter, with
Clarence Palmer ably manning the organ.
Benson is clearly as much at home with
DeJohnette's advanced playing as he was in
soul/
jazz (after all, he did play on some
Miles Davis sessions a few years before), and his tone is edgier, with more bite, than it had been for awhile. The lyrical
Benson is also on eloquent display in
"Ode to a Kudu" (heard twice on the CD, as is
"All Clear"), and there is even a somewhat experimental tilt toward
Afro-Cuban-
Indian rhythms in
"Somewhere to the East." A must-hear for all aficionados of
Benson's guitar.
~Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide