WBCN-FM has been a treasure trove for live recordings, I’ve previously posted about a Grover Washington, Jr. recording from April 1973 and I also included a live version of Freddie Hubbard’s “Intrepid Fox” on a four-fer mix to celebrate his born-day in 2020. Many, not-all the live recordings were broadcast from the Jazz Workshop at 733 Boylston St in Boston. Today’s post deals with a George Benson Quartet live set from February 20th, 1973.
The band: George Benson – guitar & vocals; Earl Klugh – guitar; Roland Wilson – bass; Lawrence “Larry” McCloskey – drums [1]https://www.bekavacfuneralhome.com/obituary/LawrenceLarry-McCloskey
The booking at the Jazz Workshop was one of the earliest where Benson and Earl Klugh would play together.
WBCN, also known as the “Boston Tea Party station” or “Boston Concert Network”, has its own story and feature film [2]Details https://theamericanrevolution.fm/. It broadcast at 104.1 FM studios in Boston and based in Cambridge, MA. Live broadcasts in 1973 prior to Benson included Larry Coryell (Jan. 2nd), McCoy Tyner (Jan. 9th), Grand Funk Railroad and Freddie King Blackgrass (Jan. 13th), Elvin Jones (Jan. 16th), Charles Mingus (Jan. 23rd), Ahmad Jamal (Jan. 30th), and Roy Haynes & The Hip Ensemble (Feb. 13th).
After Benson, Cannonball Adderley and his Quintet were broadcast live from another live music venue, Paul’s Mall (March 8th). Bobbi Humphrey was at the Jazz Workshop through Feb. 11th, but I could find nothing to indicate the show was broadcast. Immediately before George Benson and the Quartet appeared at the Jazz Workshop, from Tuesday, February 13th, through Sunday, February 18th, Gilly’s 810 Main Street, Dayton, Ohio.
The jazz club broadcasts had originally started with WHRB, the Harvard University radio station, hosted by Bob Blumenthal. In 1971, WBCN picked up the braodcasts.
The Jazz Workshop (Boston)
The Boston Jazz Workshop, at least for me, is most interesting as the location where Dick Twardzik, Dick Wetmore, and Bob Zieff workshopped a group of songs which would become the core of the Chet Baker in Paris album. More on that another time. Some of their live concerts were also “simulcast” in stereo on WBCN-FM and shown on Channel 5 TV – just days before the Benson concert, there was a simulcast concert featuring “The Hollies, Billy Preston, and Loggins & Messina.”
Legendary Boston promoter and owner Fred Taylor handled the bookings for the Jazz Workshop and Paul’s Mall, which were co-located in the same building [3]https://www.mmone.org/pauls-mall-the-jazz-workshop/. Interviewed for the Boston Globe [4]Boston Globe – Fri, Jan 19, 1973 · Page 34, he “credits WBCN’s powerful effect on the ‘new jazz.'” He noted that Boston had 300,000 college students within a five-mile radius.
The Jazz Workshop in Boston wasn’t perhaps quite as famous as the Jazz Workshop in North Beach, San Francisco – but it was a popular stop for many jazz artists, especially those on the CTI roster [5]Worth noting, as well a long-running band called “The Jazz Workshop,” there were numerous “Jazz Workshop” events and clubs in Stanford, CA, and Hamburg, Germany.
What is most interesting is that there was no promotion of the Benson appearance, it only appeared in advertisements just four days before he opened at the Jazz Workshop – by this time, Benson was way more than an unknown guitarist or sideman – he was Grammy-nominated and had won a Playboy Jazz award. This suggests that, for whatever reason, the set was a late booking. Benson and his Quartet opened on Monday, February 19th, through Sunday, 25th [6]Writing in Record World, December 30, 1972 – Martin Snider noted that “Jeremy Steig had played the Jazz Workshop in Boston this past week in place of George Benson (CTI) who cancelled … Continue reading.
The Jazz Workshop would close in 1978 with owner Taylor noting “Great jazz performers are just too expensive for a club-sized room, which can fit only 150 to 200 people. Taylor is looking for a bigger room, but has not yet found one in the Copley Square area, in the midst of Boston’s music schools.” [7]https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/4/10/pauls-mallworkshop-closes-fifteen-years-of/
In his book about the Jazz Workshop [8]“What and Give Up Showbiz? – Six Decades In The Music Business” – Fred Taylor with Richard Vacca. Backbeat Books – ISBN 978-1-4930-5184-7 (hardcover) , Fred Taylor recalled that George Benson appeared at the Jazz Workshop sixteen times, and that “George Was a great guitar player”
In all of his [Benson’s] appearances at the Workshop, with Jack [McDuff] or on his own, he had never, ever sung. It was strictly instrumental. He revealed his singing talent at that Christmas party and knocked us all out.
“What and Give Up Showbiz? – Six Decades In The Music Business” – Fred Taylor with Richard Vacca. Backbeat Books – ISBN 978-1-4930-5184-7 (hardcover)
We worked with George for eight years, through 1975, and then the next year he made Breezin’. We couldn’t afford him after that.
Fred Taylor booked George Benson in 1967, at that time they hired him and his quartet for $1,000 a week. After “Breezin'” became a best seller, “he wanted $15,000 a night.” Richard Vacca write the “Boston Jazz Chronicles” website and has a lot more detail on the Jazz Workshop [9]https://richardvacca.com/?s=%22Jazz+Workshop%22.
Both The Jazz Workshop and Paul’s Mall closed in April 1978. The final show at the Workshop was on
April 8th, when vibraphonist Milt Jackson of The Modern Jazz Quartet appeared with his own group.
1973 Grammy Awards
Of note, the 15th Grammy Awards or, more accurately, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) awards, were held in Nashville on March 3rd, 1973. Among Creed Taylor’s artists and productions nominated for 1972 were:
- Best Performance By A Group: Both “First Light” – Freddie Hubbard; “White Rabbit” – George Benson; “Outback” – Joe Farrell
- Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female: “From A Whisper To A Scream” – Esther Phillips
- Don Sebesky was also nominated for “Best Instrumental Arrangement for Freddie Hubbard’s “Lonely Town”, and twice as “Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)” for Jackie & Roy CTI tracks “Day By Day”, “Lazy Afternoon”.
The New York chapter of NARAS presented a dinner for its Grammy Award Nominees at the New York Americana Hotel on February 22nd. Record World, March 10th has a picture of Benson receiving his plaque from Billy Taylor. It was George Benson’s first nomination. George Benson would record his “Body Talk” album at Rudy Van Gelder’s July 1973 and would win a Grammy for “Best R&B Instrumental Performance” with “Good King Bad” in 1976.
Mangione Whine Time
Freddie Hubbard’s “First Light” would go on to win that night. Meanwhile, in Rochester, NY, Cliff Smith, writing in the Rochester Times-Union [10]Rochester Times-Union – Tuesday, March 6th – Page 24, asked if the “Grammys” were fair and square?
Concerned that Freddie Hubbard beat Rochester’s Chuck Mangione, he quoted Mangione saying, “That was pretty heavy competition to be in,” and pointed out that Hubbard was backed by a 31-piece orchestra and not a group. Mangione suggested that the winning Hubbard album might have been better fitted into the “Best Solo Jazz Performance” or “Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band” category. Chuck and Cliff omitted that Hubbard was also nominated in the “Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist” for his “Hub of Hubbard” album [11]https://www.grammy.com/artists/freddie-hubbard/9099/.
A week after Benson, Eumir Deodato launched his nationwide tour at the Jazz Workshop following the success of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Deodato would go from Boston to California to do dates on March 10th at the Hollywood Palladium and on Sunday 11th at the Berkley Community Theater, Roy Ayers Ubiquity were the openers at both dates. Less than 6-weeks later he would be at the Felt Forum and record the DEODATO/AIRTO “IN CONCERT” live album [12]https://www.discogs.com/master/84793-Deodato-Airto-In-Concert.
George Benson would follow Deodato to California, opening at the legendary Keystone Korner on March 13th through 18th.
FM Radio Archive
I sent this set over to Kim Paris at the FM Radio Archive[13]https://archive.org/details/fmradioarchive. It can be streamed from there, or downloaded via these links in MP3 or FLAC format.
1973 definitely was a year to keep the groove going!
References
| ↑1 | https://www.bekavacfuneralhome.com/obituary/LawrenceLarry-McCloskey |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Details https://theamericanrevolution.fm/ |
| ↑3 | https://www.mmone.org/pauls-mall-the-jazz-workshop/ |
| ↑4 | Boston Globe – Fri, Jan 19, 1973 · Page 34 |
| ↑5 | Worth noting, as well a long-running band called “The Jazz Workshop,” there were numerous “Jazz Workshop” events and clubs in Stanford, CA, and Hamburg, Germany |
| ↑6 | Writing in Record World, December 30, 1972 – Martin Snider noted that “Jeremy Steig had played the Jazz Workshop in Boston this past week in place of George Benson (CTI) who cancelled because of unknown reasons.” – Perhaps this gig was a make-up gig? |
| ↑7 | https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/4/10/pauls-mallworkshop-closes-fifteen-years-of/ |
| ↑8 | “What and Give Up Showbiz? – Six Decades In The Music Business” – Fred Taylor with Richard Vacca. Backbeat Books – ISBN 978-1-4930-5184-7 (hardcover) |
| ↑9 | https://richardvacca.com/?s=%22Jazz+Workshop%22 |
| ↑10 | Rochester Times-Union – Tuesday, March 6th – Page 24 |
| ↑11 | https://www.grammy.com/artists/freddie-hubbard/9099/ |
| ↑12 | https://www.discogs.com/master/84793-Deodato-Airto-In-Concert |
| ↑13 | https://archive.org/details/fmradioarchive |
| ↑14 | https://www.newspapers.com/image/436674448/?match=1&terms=demaris%20gillispie |
Updates: 24th June, 2006 – added download links for the FM Radio Archive Collection; link to Larry Ramsdell review and Richard Vacca’s “Boston Jazz Chronicles”.
Updates: 9th July, 2026 – Indebted to an email from Richard “Dick” Vacca, minor updates and additions.
Postscript – Synge Gillespie Death
February 1973 must have been a turbulent and upsetting time for the people and staff at the Boston Jazz Workshop. On February 3rd, the body of Boston University honors student, Damaris Synge Gillespie, was found in the Pine Woods area of Billerica after last being seen hitchhiking to work at the Jazz Workshop where she worked one day a week as a waitress.
In November 1978, Anthony J. Jackson known as the “hitchhike” murderer was convicted of killing the 22-year old. Jackson had also been convicted of murdering other young women [14]https://www.newspapers.com/image/436674448/?match=1&terms=demaris%20gillispie.
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