Give Me The Night (reissue) (12") Groovin Italy. Other releases on provogue. Front & Center: Live From New York (Record Store Day 2019) (LP) Provogue.
It kicks off with a rock-solid rendition of Berry's 1964 post-incarceration story song "Nadine (Is It You?)," which Benson makes his own by scatting in unison with his guitar solo. Fats Domino weighs in with the rollicking "I Hear You Knocking," "Blue Monday," and the album's iconic title track. Chuck Berry was already a standout star in the mid-'50s, when Benson was still playing R&B in and around his Pittsburgh hometown. While Benson never committed himself to rock 'n' roll, he could sense the guitar emerging as the most popular instrument in the world and had no qualms about giving the people what they wanted.
Following up 2013's urbane Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, George Benson returns with another tribute production, 2019's ebullient Walking to New Orleans: Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Interestingly, while Benson is best known for his funky instrumental jazz of the '70s and '80s, and smooth R&B crooning of the '80s and '90s, both of these latter-career tributes find him tackling material from even older traditions.
Walking to New Orleans (album). Walking to New Orleans is an upcoming studio album by American guitarist and singer George Benson, released by Provogue Records. It is Benson's first recording since Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, which was released in 2013. The album will be released on 26 April 2019.
Walking to New Orleans (Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino). George Benson is a jazz guitarist born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA on 22 March 1943. He started out playing straight-ahead instrumental jazz with organist Jack McDuff. Benson got his first experience playing with his several-year stint with McDuff's group. In 1964, at the age of 21, Benson recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, with Brother Jack McDuff on organ.