We first heard George Benson as a fresh-faced youth; he was barely 23 years old when recording his second album, It's Uptown. It would be another ten years before he hit pop-styled paydirt with Breezin’, and this week's album—Beyond the Blue Horizon—was recorded smack-dab in the middle of that period. In the five years since It's Uptown, Benson kept himself busy: as if releasing six more albums of his own wasn't enough (including a cover of Abbey Road), he was also invited to record a track alongside members of Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet. To my ear, that added experience translates to a greater confidence and more refined musical identity on Beyond the Blue Horizon. It's Uptown has some great stuff, but I think it's also fair to call it musical potpourri: Benson singing Gershwin and Benson laying down some slick riffs are both entertaining, but I've never felt either was complemented by the presence of the other. By contrast, Beyond the Blue Horizon is a much tighter package all-around: though the styles range widely from one track to another, the whole thing feels like one artistic vision in a way that It's Uptown never did to me.

In fact, I see Beyond the Blue Horizon as building on my favourite parts of It's Uptown—the energetic, guitar-forward Benson compositions like "Clockwise" and "Bullfight:" in this album, Benson spins those impulses into longer, more nuanced tracks. Beyond the Blue Horizon opens with a cover of "So What" (my favourite track from Kind of Blue) that injects some zest and funk while staying true to the original.¹ "The Gentle Rain" is a bossa nova cover with a misleading title: some of the runs Benson hits here are more "torrential downpour" than "gentle rain;" in contrast, while "Ode to a Kudu" features equally virtuosic riffs, the overall treatment is gentler and slower; it's delicate and beautiful. "All Clear" is bright and cheery, but with an unusual texture in the left channel to add a little contrast. I can't quite place what it is exactly; perhaps that's the "electric cello" I see listed on Wikipedia? Finally, "Somewhere in the East" is a far-ranging trek towards a vaguely Middle Eastern destination—don't miss the extended alternate take on this CD re-release where the band has the room to make it a proper epic.

So: a fine album on the whole. However, to love this album is an exercise in heartbreak: if you fall for Benson's jazz guitar stylings here, you'll be sorely disappointed by the later pop and R&B that made him a household name. I can't say it any better than this BBC review:

A reminder that though George's career switch may have made him considerably richer, it left the jazz world a bit poorer.

Favourite track: So What