George Benson with the Santa Rosa Symphony

Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of seven, he first played the ukulele in a corner drug store, for which he was paid a few dollars. At the age of eight, he played guitar in an unlicensed nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights, but the police soon closed the club down.  At the age of 10, he recorded his first single record, “She Makes Me Mad”, with RCA-Victor in New York, under the name “Little Georgie”. At the age of 21, he recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, featuring McDuff. Benson’s next recording was It’s Uptown with the George Benson Quartet, including Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone saxophone. Benson followed it up with The George Benson Cookbook, also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber on baritone and drummer Marion Booker. Miles Davis employed Benson in the mid-1960s, featuring his guitar on “Paraphernalia” on his 1968 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky before going to Verve Records. Benson then signed with Creed Taylor’s jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded several albums, with jazz heavyweights guesting, to some success, mainly in the jazz field. His 1974 release, Bad Benson, climbed to the top spot in the Billboard jazz chart. By the mid- to late-1970s, as he recorded for Warner Bros. Records, a whole new audience began to discover Benson. With the 1976 release Breezin’, Benson sang a lead vocal on the track “This Masquerade”, which became a huge pop hit and won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. In 1976, George Benson appeared as a guitarist and backup vocalist on Stevie Wonder’s song “Another Star” from Wonder’s album Songs in the Key of Life. He also recorded the original version of “The Greatest Love of All” for the 1977 Muhammad Ali bio-pic, The Greatest, which was later covered by Whitney Houston as “Greatest Love of All”. During this time Benson recorded with the German conductor Claus Ogerman. The live take of “On Broadway”, recorded a few months later from the 1978 release Weekend in L.A., also won a Grammy. He has worked with Freddie Hubbard on a number of his albums throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Qwest record label (a subsidiary of Warner Bros., run by Quincy Jones) released Benson’s breakthrough pop album Give Me The Night, produced by Jones. Benson made it into the pop and R&B top ten with the song “Give Me the Night” (written by former Heatwave keyboardist Rod Temperton). He got many hit singles such as “Love All the Hurt Away”, “Turn Your Love Around”, “Inside Love”, “Lady Love Me”, “20/20”, “Shiver”, “Kisses in the Moonlight”. More importantly, Quincy Jones encouraged Benson to search his roots for further vocal inspiration, and he re-discovered his love for Nat Cole, Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway in the process, influencing a string of further vocal albums into the 1990s. In 2009, Benson was recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts as a Jazz Master, the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Benson performed at the 49th issue of the Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia on July 25, 2009, and his tribute show to Nat King Cole An Unforgettable Tribute to Nat King Cole as part of the Istanbul International Jazz Festival in Turkey on July 27. In the fall of 2009, Benson finished recording a new album entitled Songs and Stories, with Marcus Miller, producer John Burk, and session musicians David Paich and Steve Lukather. In June 2013, Benson released his fourth album for Concord Records, Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, which featured Wynton Marsalis, Idina Menzel, Till Brönner, and Judith Hill. In September, he returned to perform at Rock in Rio festival, in Rio de Janeiro, 35 years after his first performance at this festival, which was then the inaugural one. In July 2017, Benson mark’s his 40th anniversary and  Ibanez has created a limited run of his signature guitars for the occasion. As an all-time icon and Grammy-winning giant of jazz, we have grown used to seeing George Benson on the stages that befit his sky-high status. During a six-decade career marked by awards, acclaim and Billboard-topping output, the Pittsburgh, Hill District-born veteran has earned his place in both the history books and the biggest venues around the world.

Giacomo Turra is an Italian musician born in 1997. Intrigued by the vinyls of his father, Giacomo started playing guitar at the age of 13, learning by jamming on his favorite artists like Stevie Wonder, George Benson and Herbie Hancock. In March 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, Giacomo started posting video performances on his Instagram account, soon gaining hundreds of thousands of followers from all over the world and getting recognition by celebrities such as Tom Holland, Jamie Foxx, Ty Dolla Sign, Jack Black and many more. During this period, Giacomo became official artist for D'Angelico Guitars, Shure, Laney Amplification and Universal Audio. On August 26th, 2022, Giacomo released his first original single “Get Into The Groove” and started collaborating in songs with RnB and Funk international artists. After opening for Joss Stone at Soul Live Festival in the Netherlands and performing at Java Jazz Festival 2023 in Indonesia and Jazz By The Cove in Singapore, Giacomo announced his first headliner tour, with over 50 dates across the US, Canada, UK and Europe, selling out almost one third of the shows. In April 2024, Giacomo collaborated with UK bass virtuoso Charles Berthoud on his single “Slapocalypse”, releasing a video that reached over 4 million views within a week. In May 2024, Giacomo signed with ADA Music / Warner Music and announced his upcoming self-titled EP on June 26th, releasing the first single “The Way She Wants” on May 15th featuring Philadelphia native singer Nic Hanson. Soon after, Giacomo announced a new tour across the USA, Canada, UK and Europe, including major music festivals such as Summerfest, Rose On The River and Ottawa Blues Fest.