Monday, November 25, 2024
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George Benson – This is The Best Jazz Blues Solo I know


I have been planning to make this George Benson Guitar Lesson for a long time! When it comes to Bop phrasing and Jazz Blues then George Benson is really in the top 5 with most people. This guitar lesson takes a look at the George Benson solo on the Charlie Parker F Blues: Billie’s Bounce

I spend days figuring out this solo when I got into jazz. His playing and phrasing on this F blues is truely mind-blowing. This is by far one of the best jazz blues solos that I know and really a most if you want to stufy Jazz Guitar in a bebop or hardbop style.

You should also check out how great Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham and Ron Carter play on this. Especially Hancocks solo is amazing and the trading with piano and guitar is also great and really illustrates how George Benson can also go outside and play more modern jazz licks.

Some of the things that I will cover in this video is
* How he mixes blues and bop phrases into one great language
* His favourite Arpeggio
* What makes his licks so great
* How he is mostly using very very simple things in the solo (he is just very good at it)

And then I am also going to show you one way of thinking about chords, scales and arpeggios that he uses here that is not that common but he makes it into some really great lines, it’s something he uses a lot in this solo.

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George Benson – This is The Best Jazz Blues Solo I know

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#George #Benson #Jazz #Blues #Solo

Originally posted by UCqepSCHTyWj4BzHxEEUNvlg at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Potz7UATr8Y

23 thoughts on “George Benson – This is The Best Jazz Blues Solo I know

  • The ascending lick followed by the hammer/pull-off double-step around 3m34s sounds fantastic, but I'm having a real problem getting my fingers into position to cleanly execute the double-stop part!

    Reply
  • This is so helpful. I'm a bit early in my jazz guitar education, so I'm still just going through classic solos and transcribing them by ear, and this one was confounding me. One thing that makes it particularly challenging is Benson strays so far from the chord tones, even though the original Parker arrangement is just a standard 12 bar blues, and there are long passages in Benson's solo when Carter's walking bass is barely audible, so it's so hard to hear the changes and figure out the harmonic backdrop. It was (and still is) giving me problems, but this video really helped a lot.

    Reply
  • This is a great solo indeed. One of my favourites bebop players is Billy Bean, specially the solo he plays on Straight no chaser. The video is on YT, not a great quality recording, but the phrasing and articulation are out of this world. You can tell the style is pre Benson, so he doesn't use pentatonics, but still this guy was way ahead of his time

    Reply
  • This Benson solo is magical. You did a excellent job of explaining the devices he uses. The amazing thing is it sounds so natural.

    Reply
  • Very recently I heard Kurt Rosenwinkel’s solo on Donald Fagen’s The Weather In My Head from the Sunken Condos album. Cool jazz/funk minor blues solos. The second chorus of the first solo has some nice arpeggios, but the second solo at 4:00 has some nice statements.

    Reply
  • I get sad sometimes because George made pat metheny and John McLaughlin to scared to play with him.
    Tal Farlow could hang though

    Reply
  • I love the solid white background in this video! It makes it a lot easier to stop getting distracted by your beautiful guitars on the wall!

    Reply
  • The reason I love George Benson is that he's one of those guys that uses a pretty gritty tone to play jazz and I honestly think that makes him really stand out. Larry Carlton is like that to me as well. They also both have absolutely mind blowing phrasing.

    Reply
  • On another Billie, my favorite jazz blues solo is on Billie’s Blues, the live recording with Jimmy Raney backing Billie Holiday, piano of Sonny Clark. Jimmy Raney plays some incredibly interesting lines on the Ab blues. Truly incredible bebop that has so much to offer.

    Reply
  • I followed your advise and learned grand slam and boy did it enlighten me. I’m learning my second jazz solo. Thanks Jens! ????????

    Reply
  • I'm a little late. Won't read the comments but for me the most interesting and modern jazz blued improvisor is Pat Metheny! On the songs Soul Cowboy (mid swing) and Go Get It (uptime). You have to listen and compare the different versions (from studio Trio 99->00 and the Trio Live recordings) to really realize how much his concept works for freely improvising over this very basic jazz form.

    Especially the Soul Cowboy version on the Trio Live is so much incredible outside playing! Highly recommended to check out (by me… xD

    Reply
  • Favorite jazz guitar blues solo is Wes Montgomery “Fried Pies (Take 1 ) [Alternate take].” The groove on the whole album is a great example of swing. If that groove doesn’t make you bounce around in your seat I’m not sure anything can. The entire solo is fantastic and Wes at his best in my opinion. The last four bars of the 1st blues chorus (2:522:58)contain my favorite jazz guitar phrase in any guitar solo.

    Reply
  • Nice one, Jens, thanks! My favorite solos from George are from his 70ies recordings, El Mar, Ode to a kudu, We as love or even from an 80ies pop album „in search of a dream“…there are too many actually 😉

    Reply

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