George Benson - Livi CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

Forging Charlie Christian's easy-running, saxophonelike melodic style with Wes Montgomery's octave-phrased bop lines, Benson commands an improvisational technique that's both winsome and blues steeped, and marked by florid clusters that spring effortlessly from passing "grace" chords. Yet these days, Benson favors fluffy, riff-based tunes with little thematic substance (the title track, a near-verbatim cop of "Breezin'") and automaton rhythm sections that don't take an active hand in the improvisational process: they're backdrops and nothing more. Even the one or two solos here that allude to Benson's rank as a blues artisan — his funky bop reflections in "Nassau Day" and the spiral spree in "Soulful Strut" — are invariably leveled by Claus Ogerman's and Mike Mainieri's oppressively ethereal orchestrations.

Let's be fair: Livin' inside Your Love isn't intended to advertise Benson's guitar prowess so much as advance his singer's profile. (Half the LP's twelve cuts are vocals.) It's funny but, in defense of George Benson's occasionally flaccid guitar playing, one can always state that even Wes Montgomery made a lot of diluted albums in order to reach a broader audience. That same defense doesn't apply to smarmy singing, however. When the Righteous Brothers recorded "Unchained Melody" (which Benson razes here, along with Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come"), they risked the full range of their technical and emotional faculties. Benson just juggles and muzzles his expressiveness in the hope that we'll continue to reward his suave concessions.

And, with records this pleasing, chances are we will. (RS 295)

MIKAL GILMORE