''Beyond the Blue Horizon'' is a 1971 studio album by American jazz guitarist

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, play ...

. It was his first album released by CTI and included organist Clarence Palmer, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Ron Carter, and percussionists Michael Cameron and Albert Nicholson.

Background

This album followed ''

The Other Side of Abbey Road ''The Other Side of Abbey Road'' is a 1970 studio album by American guitarist George Benson of songs from the Beatles' 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. It was his last album for A&M Records. The front cover is a photograph of Benson by Eric Meola in ...

'', his last album for A&M, arranged by

Don Sebesky Don Sebesky (born December 10, 1937) is an American arranger, jazz trombonist, and keyboardist. Biography Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy D ...

with brass, strings, and 23 musicians. Contrary to that Benson recovered at his first CTI release a classical format from a small group that included a

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, a type of ensemble in which Benson had a lot of experience recording as a sideman with organist "Brother" Jack McDuff up to 11 albums between 1963 and 1965. This was also the kind of group on ''

The New Boss Guitar of George Benson ''The New Boss Guitar of George Benson'' is the debut studio album by American jazz/soul guitarist George Benson released on 1964 under Prestige Records. Track listing (for Prestige PR 7310) Personnel *George Benson – guitar ;The Brother ...

'', his debut album as a leader in 1964 recorded with the organ quartet of Jack MacDuff. In an interview by Anthony Brown and Ken Kimery in April 2011, Benson said this album was recorded at the beginning of CTI Records as an independent label. Producer Creed Taylor had to borrow money to make it and because "he didn't have no money to put any sweetening on it, no strings or anything like that" it was more of a challenge. "I thought, I'll just get some great cats, pick some great tunes, and play some great guitar and this is exactly what he did. I borrowed Miles Davis's drummer Jack DeJohnette and brought Ron Carter aboard, so I thought it would be appropriate to honor Miles with a

funky Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid ...

cover of ' So What', his classic modal tune from '' Kind of Blue''. We also experimented with some Middle Eastern vibes, some bossa nova, and some good old

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

Reception and critics

In the 7th edition of the ''

Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'', critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton wrote ''Beyond the Blue Horizon'' "still has the right to be one of Benson's best records". At

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Richard S. Ginell stated "this is a superb jazz session". "''The Jazz Messenger"'' called it "probably the single best document of Benson's technically fluid facility and his musically inventive lyricism at any tempo."

Music and compositions

The performance of Miles Davis's "So What" is driven by the rhythm section of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette, who provide strong support for solos by Benson and organist Clarence Palmer, according to Dan Bilawsky in

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

as "constantly shifts from funk to up-tempo swing to a half-time feel".

Album design

The cover of the LP from 1971 was designed by Bob Ciano with photos by Pete Turner.''The Album Cover Art of Pete Turner''. Retrieved 21 October 2018
/ref> "Flames" was shot in 1964 in Libya as part of a series Turner made for Standard Oil. The picture of Benson in black and white was taken by

Chuck Stewart Charles Stewart (May 21, 1927 – January 20, 2017) was an American photographer best known for his portraits of jazz singers and musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis, as well as ar ...

Track listing

Bonus tracks on CD reissue in 1987:

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* Clarence Palmer – Hammond organ * Ron Carter –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

electric cello The electric cello is a type of cello that relies on electronic amplification (rather than acoustic resonance) to produce sound. An acoustic cello can be fitted with a bridge or body mounted contact pickup providing an electric signal, or a built- ...

* Jack DeJohnette – drums * Michael Cameron – percussion * Albert Nicholson – percussion Technical *

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...

–

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

*Bob Ciano – album design *

– photography * Pete Turner – photography

References

{{Authority control 1971 albums George Benson albums Albums produced by Creed Taylor CTI Records albums Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio