Though purists may accuse this respected jazz guitarist of having sold out by scoring with a platinum album of mood music, none could deny that Breezin' contains superior mood music. Its six medium-length cuts are extended song arrangements which don't allow daring improvisation yet show off Benson's flawless technique. All sound pretty much the same—vaguely wistful and vaguely Latin American—due to the grafting of gossamer strings onto quietly cooking rhythm and instrumental tracks. But this homogenization is a big step up from "Theme from 'A Summer Place,'" the refrain of which is heard in Bobby Womack's title cut.

Leon Russell's "This Masquerade," the only cut on which Benson sings, features fine scatting on top of the guitar part and an interpretation that pleasantly apes Stevie Wonder. If the success of Breezin' tells us very little about the state of jazz, it indicates a great deal about present influences on the popular mainstream. Here is a comfortable but sophisticated jazz, R&B and MOR blend, whose light romantic style ultimately derives from and dilutes the spirit of Stevie Wonder's ballads. (RS 225)

STEPHEN HOLDEN