For George Benson's 2d CTI project, producer Creed Taylor too arranger Don Sebesky successfully house the guitarist inwards a Spanish-flavored setting total of flamenco flourishes, brass fanfares, moody woodwinds too such. The persuasion industrial plant best on "California Dreamin'" (whose chords are based on Andalusian harmonies), where, driven past times Jay Berliner's exciting Castilian beat guitar, Benson comes through alongside closed to terrifically inspired playing. On "El Mar," Berliner is replaced past times Benson's protégé Earl Klugh (then alone 17) inwards an inauspicious -- though at the time, widely-heralded -- recorded debut. The championship rails is closed to other winner, marred alone past times the out-of-tune brasses at the close, too inwards a proficient event of the CTI classical/jazz formula at work, Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Little Train of the Caipira" is given an attractive early-'70s facelift. Herbie Hancock gets enough of nimble solo infinite on Rhodes electrical piano, Airto Moreira contributes percussion too atmospheric wordless vocals, too Ron Carter too Billy Cobham consummate the high-energy beat section. In this prime number sample of the CTI idiom, everyone wins.
After 3 late-1960s A&M albums alongside mastermind Creed Taylor prior to the creation of CTI Records, guitarist George Benson hitting 1971 running alongside 2 CTI debuts, issued a few months apart. Beyond the Blue Horizon was closer, inwards complexion, to his A&M recordings—harkening back, even, to his impressive 1966 Columbia Records two-punch, It's Uptown too The George Benson Cookbook—although the virtuosic, soul- drenched guitarist was clearly evolving every bit a purpose instrumentalist too maturing into 1 whose firebrand, virtuosic tendencies were becoming refreshingly balanced alongside greater maturity too restraint.
White Rabbit was (and remains) an anomaly inwards Benson's prodigious catalogue, alongside its heavy orchestration past times CTI regular Don Sebesky. It's also the album that offset paired Earl Klugh—a guitarist who, inwards the aspect upward of Charlie Byrd too Laurindo Almeida, took the nylon-string into the realm of low-cal funk too soul—with the electrical Benson. The partnership would final a couplet to a greater extent than years to the to a greater extent than decidedly groove- centric Body Talk (CTI, 1973), which foreshadowed Benson's rocket to stardom alongside his motion to Warner Bros. too 1976's megahit, Breezin'.
Despite closed to genuinely dated material—in particular the championship track, an overblown hold back at Jefferson Airplane's drug-drenched, 1967 hitting single—Benson transcends it all, alongside closed to bright playing, fifty-fifty every bit "White Rabbit" strives to pause out of Sebesky's overbearing bolero-like arrangement. Herbie Hancock, too, turns inwards an energetic electrical pianoforte solo, too comps alongside soft (and welcome) pushes towards the outer reaches during Hubert Laws' flute feature, creating closed to much-needed tension too release, fifty-fifty every bit the rails heads towards an overly cluttered ending that, alongside tympanis pounding, is indicative of CTI at its worst.
That said, Sebesky's gentle strings too harp on "Theme from 'Summer of 42'" are far to a greater extent than successful—and appropriate. It's slow listening, to endure sure, alongside Benson joining Klugh on nylon string guitar, every bit the vocal moves into low-cal Latin territory, simply the to a greater extent than change-heavy accept on a classical piece—Villa Lobos' "Little Train," taken from the composer's "Bachianas Brasilerias #2," is an album highlight; Benson's fleet-fingers matched past times Hancock too bolstered past times bassist Ron Carter too drummer Billy Cobham, who gear upward without overbearance.
Another dated track, The Mamas too The Papas' pre-Summer of Love hit, "California Dreamin,'" begins alongside an almost non-sequitur of Castilian tinges but, to a greater extent than than anywhere else on the album, demonstrates the simpatico interplay betwixt Benson too Klugh, suggesting that Klugh was, indeed, a star inwards the making. Klugh's gorgeous intro to Benson's closing "El Mar"—the album's alone original—sets the phase for an 11-minute highlight that suggests a stylistic breadth to Benson that, despite a subsequent career living every bit much inwards the popular basis every bit anywhere else, has continued to this day.
An anomaly inwards Benson's catalogue, perhaps, too 1 alongside its fair portion of weaknesses to offset its many strengths, this CTI Masterworks reissue of White Rabbit remains, inwards many ways, a curiosity that transitions betwixt his to a greater extent than mainstream efforts too the soulful jazz/pop star he was nearly to become; non without its merits, simply non essential either.
Track listing:
01 "White Rabbit" (Grace Slick) - 6:55
02 "Theme from Summer of '42" (Michel Legrand) - 5:08
03 "Little Train (from Bachianas Brasileiras No.2)" (Heitor Villa-Lobos) - 5:47
04 "California Dreaming" (John Phillips, Michelle Phillips) - 7:22
05 "El Mar" (George Benson) - 10:49
Personnel:
George Benson - guitar
Jay Berliner - acoustic guitar
Earl Klugh - acoustic guitar (5)
Ron Carter - bass
Herbie Hancock - electrical piano
Billy Cobham - drums
Airto Moreira - percussion, vocals
Gloria Agostini - vibes, percussion
Woodwinds:
Phil Bodner - flute, alto flute, oboe, English linguistic communication horn
Hubert Laws - flute, alto flute, piccolo, flute solo on 1
George Marge - flute, alto flute, clarinet, oboe, English linguistic communication horn
Romeo Penque - English linguistic communication horn, oboe, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet
Jane Taylor - bassoon
Brass:
Wayne Andre - trombone, baritone
Jim Buffington - French horn
John Frosk - trumpet, flugelhorn, solo (1, 5)
Alan Rubin - trumpet, flugelhorn
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