構成数 | 1枚

合計収録時間 | 00:41:28

Personnel: George Benson (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); Andrea Simmons, Shoshannah (vocals, background vocals); Richard Bona (chant, percussion); Joshua Thompson (guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, bass synthesizer, drum programming); Joe Thomas (guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming, background vocals); Georg "Jojje" Wadenius (guitar, electric guitar); Pic Conley (flute, drum programming); Gregoire Maret (harmonica); Bill Blast (electric piano); Bobby Douglas (keyboards); Hakim Bell, Ali Muhammed Jackson (drum programming); Chyna, Randy Beasley, Sean Albrecht, Selina Albright, Taylor Carpenter, Lisa Fischer, Philip White, John Fiore (background vocals). Audio Mixer: John Roper. Recording information: Tallest Tree Studios, West Orange, NJ. Photographer: Kwaku Alston. In the public eye as a recording artist since the early 1960s, guitarist/vocalist George Benson is arguably the man who injected the "smooth" into smooth jazz. IRREPLACEABLE artfully treads the border between contemporary R&B and smooth jazz, thanks in no small part to producer/songwriter Joshua Paul Thompson. A couple of factors set the more mature Benson's work apart from the pack of teens and twentysomethings crowding the jazz-tinged R&B field. Benson takes his vocal cues from the classic models of Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke, with a healthy dash of Stevie Wonder, leaving the histrionics for others to negotiate at their own risk. But, of course, Benson most clearly puts his mark on the album with his sui generis fretwork. Certainly the tracks groove like great R&B should, but on the tunes "Take You Out," "Missing You," and the standard "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise," Benson's alternately blistering and sensual guitar lines grace the proceedings with a resonating lyricism.