Fireworks Come Toward End of Benson’s Confident Show

George Benson’s appearance at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center on Friday night was an illuminating example of what can happen when a performer is too talented to be confined to a packaged format.

For the initial part of the concert, Benson essentially played the role of a successful, supremely confident pop artist. Garbed in one of the orange-red suits he favors, playing fast-fingered guitar and singing in fluid, gospel-tinged style, he moved through a virtually nonstop series of selections. One after another they poured out--brief, overflowing with high-impact musical hooks, a virtual live presentation of a Top 40 radio show.

In one segment of the evening, Benson barely touched his guitar, emphasizing his vocal strengths in songs such as “Nature Boy,” “Moody’s Mood for Love,” “Love Dance” and “Turn Your Love Around.” Other hits added his guitar, as well as the colorful, scatting combination of his voice and guitar, with a capacity crowd responding enthusiastically to more familiar numbers--”Beyond the Sea,” “Your Eyes,” “Tenderly,” “My One and Only Love,” “Give Me the Night.”

For a good two-thirds of the evening, however, Benson and his six-piece ensemble seemed reluctant to depart from the carefully framed qualities of the songs, sticking with interpretations that varied minimally from the recorded efforts. And, for those who recall that in his earlier years Benson was an extraordinary jazz artist whose playing was notable for its visceral connection with the blues, it was a performance that, up to that point, was appealing for its craft rather than its art.

But near the close of the show, Benson finally loosened up. And, on numbers such as “The Ghetto,” “Masquerade” and “On Broadway,” he broke through the packaging in explosive fashion.

Ignited by his guitar and voice, his backup players followed suit. In fiery contrast to the bland efforts of the earlier part of the evening, the resulting performances offered a stunning display of an accomplished artist bypassing the restrictions of format in favor of displaying the full panoply of his creative skills.