White Rabbit (Reissue)

VINYL FORMAT. Masterworks Jazz continues its celebration of the Fortieth Anniversary of CTI Records by returning to the iconic label's LP roots. These titles have been re-mastered using the original two-track analog tapes and are now available in Fortieth Anniversary Editions on 180 gram vinyl. Each release features the original gatefold sleeve design and includes a digital download card!

'For George Benson's second CTI project [White Rabbit], 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 / All Music Guide