To a seven-year-old, money don’t mean anything after you buy your first hot dog and bag of popcorn. I made a fortune with that ukulele playing on street corners.įGPO: You could’ve started a fund for your first proper guitar.īenson: Yeah, right. He glued it back together, put some strings it and taught me the first few chords. He realized my hands weren’t large enough to play guitar, so he found a ukulele in a garbage can, all smashed to pieces.
#BREEZIN GEORGE BENSON AFFIRMATION HOW TO#
He heard me messing with his guitar one day and said: “Now you got to learn how to play it” and started teaching me.įGPO: You actually started on ukulele, right?īenson: That’s right. I was fascinated from the very beginning. When we moved into a house that did have electricity, he went to a pawn shop and got his electric guitar out and plugged it in, and I couldn’t believe the sound that went through that wire to a box on the other side of the room and made loud sounds. Before that I didn’t live in a house with electricity. He says he’s been “trying to retire for 20 years, but they won’t let me.” And we’re happy for that.įGPO: How did you get started playing guitar?īenson: When my stepfather met my mother, I was seven years old. These days Benson is still active, both live and in the studio, and he’s in the midst of plotting his next recording project as well as eyeballing a potential film biopic. He’s also logged sideman duties with Brother Jack McDuff, Miles Davis, Larry Young, Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws and many more and has won 10 Grammy Awards along the way. A run that began with the triple-platinum “Breezin’,” celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, put Benson on the pop charts with “This Masquerade” and subsequent singles such as “The Greatest Love Of All,” “On Broadway,” “Give Me The Night” and “Love The Hurt Away” with Aretha Franklin. A prodigy who picked up the ukulele when he was seven years old in his native Pittsburgh and released his first single, “She Makes Me Mad,” when he was 10, Benson has arguably done more to bring jazz to the masses than most and maybe any of his colleagues. If George Benson’s isn’t the first name mentioned when someone brings up great jazz guitarists, you can bet it’s right up there. Jazz guitar icon reflects on his long career, including 40 years of his biggest album
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