For
George Benson's second CTI project, producer
Creed Taylor and arranger
Don Sebesky successfully place the guitarist in a Spanish-flavored setting full of flamenco flourishes, brass fanfares, moody woodwinds and such. The idea works best on "California Dreamin'" (whose chords are based on Andalusian harmonies), where, driven by
Jay Berliner's exciting Spanish rhythm guitar,
Benson comes through with some terrifically inspired playing. On "El Mar,"
Berliner is replaced by
Benson's protégé
Earl Klugh (then only 17) in an inauspicious -- though at the time, widely-heralded -- recorded debut. The title track is another winner, marred only by the out-of-tune brasses at the close, and in a good example of the CTI classical/jazz formula at work,
Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Little Train of the Caipira" is given an attractive early-'70s facelift.
Herbie Hancock gets plenty of nimble solo space on Rhodes electric piano,
Airto Moreira contributes percussion and atmospheric wordless vocals, and
Ron Carter and
Billy Cobham complete the high-energy rhythm section. In this prime sample of the CTI idiom, everyone wins. ~ Richard S. Ginell