Check it out! Jazz guitar-man George Benson had himself a Top 40 hit in 1977 with Eden Ahbez’s “Nature Boy.” But more recently I came across this clipping of Benson hanging with the elder Ahbez in a Hollywood recording studio.
Note Ahbez’s monster of a handmade wooden flute, which the article says he played Benson a potential follow-up on. I guess Benson didn’t go for it. Alas, by the late ’70s, Ahbez’s activity on record grew scant, and sightings of him in Hollywood were even less frequent.
At least he got to see another hit version of his old standard. While we’re at it, then, check out Benson’s silky-smooth cover here:
