''White Rabbit'' is an album by

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 ...

. The title track is a cover of the famous

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...

/ Jefferson Airplane song by

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

.This album was George Benson's second

CTI Records CTI Records (Creed Taylor Incorporated) is a jazz record label founded in 1967 by Creed Taylor. CTI was a subsidiary of A&M before becoming independent in 1970. Its first album was '' A Day in the Life'' by guitarist Wes Montgomery in 1967. Th ...

project produced by Creed Taylor and was recorded nine months after ''

Beyond the Blue Horizon ''Beyond the Blue Horizon'' is a 1971 studio album by American jazz guitarist George Benson. It was his first album released by CTI Records, CTI and included organist Clarence Palmer, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Ron Carter, and percussionis ...

''.

Background

''"White Rabbit"'' was described at Billboard as "a dynamic pop-packed

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

LP with two extraordinary works ''" California Dreaming"'' and ''"

White Rabbit The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! ...

"''". For this project Creed Taylor and

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 ...

used the formula that gave them good results in other recordings with

Verve Records Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simon ...

and

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

: two successful

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

/ pop songs covers from

The Mamas and the Papas The Mamas & the Papas were a folk rock vocal group formed in Los Angeles, California, which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. The group consisted of A ...

and Jefferson Airplane, music from a well-known

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

like ''"The Summer Knows"'' (''"Theme from

Summer of '42 ''Summer of '42'' is a 1971 American coming-of-age film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman "Hermie" Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island (off the coast of Cape ...

)'' of

Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many son ...

, a jazzy version of a classical Brazilian song'' ''"''Little train''"'' ''from Heitor Villa-Lobos'' " Brachianas Basileiras No.2" ''and an original George Benson composition,'' "El Mar" . ''In all tracks featuring Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter,

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the ''Mode ...

, Airto Moreira,

Jay Berliner Jay Berliner (born May 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American guitarist who has worked with Harry Belafonte, Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, and Van Morrison, among others. Career Berliner had his first television experience at age seven w ...

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm- ...

plus nine studio musicians playing at different wind instruments and harp arrangements. This album was the recorded debut of a guitarist'', ''

Earl Klugh Earl Klugh ( ; born September 16, 1953) is an American acoustic guitarist and composer. He has won one Grammy award and thirteen nominations. Klugh was awarded the “1977” Best Recording Award For Performance and Sound” for his album “Fin ...

, only 17 years old by then, featuring on ''"El Mar"''. Interviewed by

Jeff Tamarkin Jeff Tamarkin is an American editor, author and historian specializing in music and popular culture. Career For 15 years Tamarkin was editor of '' Goldmine'', a magazine for record and CD collectors. Prior to that, he served as the first editor o ...

at ''" Music & Musicians"'', answering a question about the choice of Jefferson Airplane's song for this album, Benson said: «I had never heard of it before. I’d never even heard of the group! It sounded so bizarre, as opposed to what I wanted to do. But I have never run away from a challenge.» The track that named the album was Don Sebesky's initiative as he recognized to Marc Myers in an interview at "JazzWax", after listening to Jefferson Airplane's record '' Surrealistic Pillow'', which was released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

in 1967 and he brought the proposal of the album to Creed Taylor: «I suggested we do White Rabbit in a Spanish mode. He agreed. George Benson doesn’t read music. He just heard the song and automatically fell into the groove. It shows you that music doesn’t exist on the page, only in the air.» Benson told at the interview with Tamarkin that «The White Rabbit album was very exciting—it was an adventure. I really enjoyed doing that stuff», nevertheless Didier C. Deutsch cited at the booklet of the CD

digitally remastered Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

, released in 1987 by Epic (EPC 450555 2) that Benson didn't like the 'tracking' process followed by CTI for this album, by means of a studio technique where the soloist, rhythm section, and background ingredients are recorded separately with overdubbing made afterwards.

Reception and critics

The review of this record at Jazz Musical Archives ''"White Rabbit"'' is rated as a four stars album considered to be "a slick but interesting album from a great guitarist" where "the sound of guitar dominates, both acoustic and electric". In the opinion of John Kelman 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 ...

this album "was (and remains) an anomaly in Benson's prodigious catalogue» and to him ''"White Rabbit¨'' is "a curiosity that transitions between his more mainstream efforts and the soulful jazz/pop star he was about to become". ''"White Rabbit"'' was the first

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

nomination to George Benson in 1972 at the category of "Best Jazz Performance by a Group".

Album design

The original 1971 LP cover was designed by Bob Ciano and features Pete Turner's picture of Pondo tribeswoman that he photographed in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

in 1970. George Benson recognized in his autobiographyGeorge Benson with Alan Goldsher (2014). ''"Benson The Autobiography"''. Da Capo Press. p.137-138. in 2014 that the fact that Creed Taylor didn't put his photo on the cover «was a factor that played to the success of this album».

Track listing

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 ...

– Spanish guitar *

– acoustic guitar (5) * Herbie Hancock – electric piano * Ron Carter –

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

(1, 3),

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 ...

(2, 4, 5) *

– drums * Airto Moreira –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

* Phil Kraus –

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

, percussion * Gloria Agostini – harp ;Woodwinds: *

Phil Bodner Philip L. Bodner (June 13, 1917 – February 24, 2008) was an American jazz clarinetist and studio musician who also played flute, oboe, saxophone, and English horn. Career A native of Waterbury, Connecticut, Bodner worked as a studio musician ...

– flute, alto flute,

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

, English horn *

– flute, alto flute, piccolo, Flute solo (1) * George Marge – flute, alto flute, clarinet, oboe, English horn * Romeo Penque – English horn, oboe, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet * Jane Taylor – bassoon ;Brass: *

Wayne Andre Wayne Andre (November 17, 1931 – August 26, 2003) was an American jazz trombonist, best known for his work as a session musician. Andre's father was a saxophonist, and he took private music lessons from age 15. He played with Charlie Spivak in ...

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

, baritone horn * Jim Buffington –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* John Frosk –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, flugelhorn, trumpet solo (1, 5) *

Alan Rubin Alan Rubin (February 11, 1943 – June 8, 2011), also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet. Early life and education Rubin was born in Brooklyn. He began attending Juilliard S ...

– trumpet, flugelhorn

Production

* Creed Taylor – producer * Didier C. Deutsch – producer (CD 1987) *

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 ...

–

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

* Frank Decker –

(CD 1987) *

– arrangements * Pete Turner – cover photography * Bob Ciano – album design

References

External links

''White Rabbit''
at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed) {{Authority control 1972 albums George Benson albums CTI Records albums Albums arranged by Don Sebesky Albums produced by Creed Taylor Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio