Guitarist and singer
George Benson gives a long-lost album new life on 2024's soulfully urbane
Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnon. Initially recorded in 1989, these sessions were captured during a busy, transitional period for
Benson, arriving amidst his massive wave of chart success in the '70s and early '80s, periods that found him moving between more groove-based funk and synthy, quiet-storm balladry. Recorded with legendary film and mood music composer/producer
Robert Farnon, the set finds
Benson returning to the jazz, standards, and traditional pop approach of his early career. For whatever reason,
Benson delayed releasing (and ultimately lost) the album, perhaps choosing instead to showcase 1989's similarly oriented
Tenderly, which found him working with arranger
Marty Paich and jazz luminaries
McCoy Tyner and
Ron Carter. In many ways,
Dreams Do Come True feels like a companion album to it, showcasing a handful of American Popular Songbook classics alongside newer pop hits like
Lennon and
McCartney's "Yesterday" and
Leon Russell's "A Song for You." In revisiting
Dreams Do Come True,
Benson worked with composer/arranger
Randy Waldman to add overdubs and some choral arrangements as finishing touches on the original recordings. The result is an album of lushly performed jazz and traditional pop with
Benson's bright croon framed by warm orchestral strings, piano, and harp. Cuts like "Pretend," "My Romance," and "Autumn Leaves" nicely underscore his longstanding love for
Nat King Cole. Similarly, by focusing on jazz standards he's able to spotlight just how harmonically rich and swinging his jazz phrasing is. If it had been released in 1989, it would have prefigured the rise in popularity of similar standards albums by
Natalie Cole,
Rod Stewart,
Tony Bennett, and others. Even arriving decades after it was recorded,
Dreams Do Come True perfectly blends
Benson's contemporary style with a timeless jazz and pop charm. ~ Matt Collar
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