GEORGE BENSON SOLO on “THE COOKER” (transcribed & performed by Alex Skolnick)

Here’s another one of my all time favorite solos. Most think of George Benson as hit maker/pop star/vocalist who also plays a mean ’s true since the mid to late 70s but before all that, he was doing this type of heavy soul jazz/blues stuff in the 60s, both under his own name and with folks like Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith (both masters of the Hammond B3 organ). When I found myself home & not touring last year, I learned a few choruses of this just as a pet project, shared it online and the response was overwhelming (including from some musical heroes that I won’t name drop). So I’ve been picking at it (pardon the pun) ever since. Is it perfect? No! But the feel seems right and it’s incredibly fun to play and listen to. Song form: Uptempo 12-Bar Blues, Ab Album: “The George Benson Cookbook”. Want to learn it or parts of it? This whole thing is done slow with a metronome plus play by play breakdown/description, available my Patreon: