Breezin'

1	Breezin' 5:40
2	This Masquerade 8:03
3	Six to Four 5:06
4	Affirmation 7:01
5	So This Is Love? 7:03
6	Lady 5:49

Barnes & Noble

Benson is a double threat, a brilliant guitarist who is also a gifted vocalist. Although he enjoyed success throughout the '60s and '70s, Benson really broke through as a mainstream pop artist in 1976, when he released the platinum-selling BREEZIN'. The gorgeous ballad "This Masquerade" was the big hit, but the lively title track and the swinging "Six to Four" will be just as familiar to smooth-jazz fans. The album also includes the gently grooving "Affirmation" and two lovely, string-accented tunes, "So This Is Love" and "Lady." BREEZIN' is a particular milestone for an artist who continues to be one of music's true giants. Lucy Tauss

All Music Guide

All of a sudden, George Benson became a pop superstar with this album, thanks to its least representative track. Most of Breezin' is a softer-focused variation of Benson's R&B/jazz-flavored CTI work, his guitar as assured and fluid as ever with Claus Ogerman providing the suave orchestral backdrops and his crack then-working band (including Ronnie Foster on keyboards and sparkplug Phil Upchurch on rhythm guitar) pumping up the funk element. Yet it is the sole vocal track (his first in many years), Leon Russell's "This Masquerade" -- where George unveiled his new trademark, scatting along with a single-string guitar solo -- that reached number ten on the pop singles chart and drove the album all the way to number one on the pop (!) LP chart. The attractive title track also became a minor hit single, although Gabor Szabo's 1971 recording with composer Bobby Womack is even more fetching. In the greater scheme of Benson's career, Breezin' is really not so much a breakthrough as it is a transition album; the guitar is still the core of his identity. Richard S. Ginell