George Benson The Art of Jazz Guitar
George Benson The Art of Jazz Guitar
Eight-time Grammy-winner George Benson covers chord substitutions, turnarounds, the Wes Montgomery style, and more. He demonstrates his signature scat-style singing on the groundbreaking This Masquerade and soloing over the famous On Broadway vamp. Also included are several virtuoso solo jazz and blues guitar performances by Benson himselffurther proof, if it were needed, of his total mastery of jazz guitar.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Not Instructional
Benson is a jaw-droppingly great guitarist on his records. Sadly, on this Hot Licks DVD, he noodles around for 90 minutes on two out-of-tune and toneless guitars without explaining what he is doing and why. As another reviewer wrote, some talented people are not necessarily good teachers. For excellent instruction, I recommend the DVDs by Joe Pass and Danny Gatton.
5 Stars Good enought, but it cames in a pretty big case (it didn’t fir at my mailbox and the postman return it to the box office).
The DVD cames in a pretty big case and it didn’t fir at my mailbox. So, the postman return it to the post office and I’d to go to the post office and loose my time… One of the reasons that I choose Amazon is cause you don’t have to move to shop something. I’m always busy and I hate drive to the post office and loose my precious time…
5 Stars A Very Good DVD From the Master
This DVD is excellent in the way it focuses on Benson’s hands while he is playing but a word of warning, this is not a ‘put your finger here’ type of video although it does come with a transcribed booklet that includes both TAB and standard notation. But if you have knowledge of various scales and modes you can really put what he is talking about to good use. When he shows you how he solos over changes using a 2, flat 2, 1 progression instead of a 2, 5, 1, it helps if you are able to comprehend what he’s talking about. But if you DO understand and put George’s suggestions to the test, you will be rewarded. The best part about it is that you will sound like YOU and not him. If you DO want to sound like him, he shows you some of the tricks he likes to employ (wait til you see the part about ‘rattling the keys’). I love this DVD. As another reviewer noted, there is a problem with some of the guitars going out of tune but in all fairness these were NEW instruments, not George’s personal ones. I think the idea was to set everything up so all George had to do was sit down and play. At any rate, this is a very good DVD and even if you aren’t familiar with various scales and modes just watching him play by himself is well worth the price of this video. Thanks for sharing George.
1 Star Misleading
If want to see a great guitarist noodle in what is essentially an in home jam session then this is the DVD for you. If you want to learn jazz guitar you might as well take the case it comes in and put strings on it. There is no real content here related to teaching jazz at all (he does his version of “Danny Boy” for God’s sake!)
3 Stars Out of tune throughout.
I’m a big George Benson fan and this DVD really amazed me. Apparentely, he played everything on it without any preparation. My jaw just dropped. That said, it’s a pity that he didn’t even bother to tune his guitars before as he should. They are totally out of tune all the time. It could have been a much better DVD.
