songs and stories

Today happens to be the independence day of my homeland nigeria,naija or nja whateva you might wish to call it , we are 49 years old !! happy indepedence day nja

The title of this blog is songs and stories which happens to the title of GB's new cd (for the uninitiated) that's george benson!! Was at Bond street 2 days ago and dropped by HMV like i normally would browsing and this cd caught my eye, i first thought it was a greatest hits but on closer inspection found out it was his new offering and what made me actually buy it was the fact that it was co-produced by the 'superman' of bass M2, Marcus Miller and that for me was worth the £10 i paid for it.

It's essentially a cover cd featuring songs sang and written by donny hathaway 'someday we all be free', james taylor 'dont let me be lonely tonight', the troutman brothers (roger & larry popularly known as zapp band) 'nothing but a party', toto's- show me love 'christopher cross 'sailing', Tony Joe White's 'rain night in georgia and the marcus miller original 'exotica' and much more .

Honestly, i seriously think george is BACK not that he left anyway, cos i dont think he can make a bad cd, even if he tries and dont forget he's been around a long, long time and i mean like 40 years or more playing music.This cd features the complete george and what i mean is that we get him singing ,scatting and guitaring ...the 'gb way' on his ibanez guitar, and the total package is let loose on the marcus miller penned 'exotica' and also on track 11 living in high definition(lamont dozier) which too me is purely joy and not forgeting the smokey robinson gem 'one like you'.This song should be filed under instant classic and it features the great man on backing vocals

His more recent cds have really understated his genius on the guitar and i think songs and stories take us back his 'breezing' and 'masqurade' days and the george benson we all fell in love with back in the 70's and early 80's (boy i am growing old)
highly recommended and a must for gb or music lovers

please visit http://georgebenson.com/ for more information