The George Benson Cookbook is the third album by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

/soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

 to be produced by John Hammond

John H. Hammond

John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...

.

Description

The Hard Bop Homepage says of the album, "This is basically the George Benson quartet, with Smith and Cuber, but trombonist Bennie Green

Bennie Green

Bennie Green was an American jazz trombonist.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Green worked in the orchestras of Earl Hines and Charlie Ventura, and recorded as bandleader through the 1950s and 1960s.-As leader:...

 and percussionist Pucho were added on some tracks, giving them a bop flavor that delighted dedicated jazz fans and critics. Benson's quartet was modeled after Jack McDuff's

Jack McDuff

"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...

--with baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber

Ronnie Cuber

Ronnie Cuber is a jazz saxophonist. He has also played in Latin, pop, rock and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he has also played tenor sax, soprano sax and flute, the latter on an album by Eddie Palmieri. As a leader, Cuber is known for hard bop and Latin jazz...

, organist Lonnie Smith

Lonnie Smith (jazz musician)

Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist.-Biography:He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music...

, a powerhouse player who deserved more attention than he ever received, and Jimmy Lovelace or Marion Booker on drums. The sonorous tone of Cuber's baritone gives the quartet a richer, more dense texture than that obtained by McDuff, who used a tenor, but the overall sound is the same. At twenty-five, Ronnie Cuber was an alumnus of Marshall Brown's

Marshall Brown

Marshall Brown was a jazz musician and educator. He played trombones and, less often, bass trumpet or euphonium. He played the valve trombone.Brown was little recorded, and devoted most of his career to education...

 celebrated Newport Youth Band; he had spent the previous two years with Maynard Ferguson's

Maynard Ferguson

Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...

very loud and brassy orchestra, which may account for his aggressive style, but Cuber's approach also emphasized rhythm, and that was precisely the ingredient called for by a "soul jazz" group of this kind."

Track listing

1. "The Cooker" (4:18)
2. "Benny's Back" (4:10)
3. "Bossa Rocka" (4:20)
4. "All of Me" (2:08)
5. "Big Fat Lady" (4:40)
6. "Benson's Rider" (5:30)
7. "Ready and Able" (3:32)
8. "The Borgia Stick" (3:05)
9. "Return of the Prodigal Son" (2:34)
10. "Jumpin' with Symphony Sid" (6:33)

2007 remastered CD / Blu-spec CD bonus tracks

1. "The Man From Toledo"
2. "Slow Scene"
3. "Let Them Talk"
4. "Goodnight"

Personnel

• George Benson - guitar
• Ronnie Cuber - baritone saxophone
• Bennie Green - trombone
• Lonnie Smith - organ
• Jimmy Lovelace - drums
• Marion Booker - drums