SHORT TAKES : Guitarist Aids Ailing Musician

Jazz guitarist George Benson gave a pep talk to a would-be musician suffering a rare form of cancer. Then he backed up the kind words with a valuable gift.

When 22-year-old David Romito talked with Benson after a show here last fall, it gave him hope.

“Benson talked with me a long time,” Romito said this week. “He knew I was sick, of course, and said he knew somebody who once was given only six weeks to live--and the person is still living 10 years later.”

Romito admired Benson’s guitar, a six-string Ibanez, and the singer offered to send him an identical one. The instrument arrived at Romito’s home last month, he said.

Romito plays guitar, sings and writes music. He was diagnosed in 1985 with rhabdomyosarcoma, a muscular cancer but said he is continuing to focus on his musical career.