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Tavis: What a pleasure to be sitting across from two music legends at the same time. George Benson and Al Jarreau. Two of the great names and voices in all of music over the past generation. They have teamed up, finally, for a CD called 'Givin' It Up.' What else would you call a CD (laugh) with Benson and Jarreau, other than 'Givin' It Up?' I was lucky to catch them in Atlanta over the summer, just one stop on a nationwide tour they have headlined. 'Givin' It Up' is in stores today, and I am honored today, tonight, to have George Benson and Al Jarreau. Mr. Benson, how are you, sir?

George Benson: Oh, thank you, brother, thank you, brother, thank you (unintelligible).

Al Jarreau: And we are honored. (Laugh)

Tavis: Mr. Jarreau, how are you, sir? Nice to see you both.

Jarreau: Doing great. (Laugh)

Tavis: Why now? This seems like such a good idea, but it's taken all this n you guys have known each other for a long time.

Jarreau: Not a long time. It was label mates way back in the seventies over at Warner-Reprise. Yes, why now? Well, some, when the stars align. (Laugh) Like when a record company comes along and takes it beyond the notion of just an idea in the back of your head and says, 'We got studios, we got distribution, we have the wherewithal to make something like this happen,' that's different than just imagining it.

Benson: Yeah, you gotta remember that in our lives, we've been criss-crossing around the world. Every now and then I'd see him, I'd be glad to see him. I'd say, 'Old Al's out there keeping it alive,' and he probably said the same thing about me. (Laugh) But the time goes by so fast, you just don't realize it. And so when finally we ended up back on the same record company, then the idea, which would have and should have popped up years ago...

Jarreau: It would have been much more difficult, though, when you're dealing with two different record companies.

Benson: It came up at the right time, and we said if we're gonna do this, now is the time.

Tavis: Have you guys, prior to this project, ever happened to have appeared together in performance?

Benson: Yes. We did the Jon Hendricks record with Bobby McFerrin, where we did jazz, and it was super-hot. Me and Al toughed it out and battled it out, and Bobby McFerrin was beating both of us up (laugh) and turning us inside out. And Jon Hendricks came along and killed us all.

Jarreau: Oh, Jon Hendricks, yeah, a mentor of mine. Well, we'd crossed paths and been on the same jazz programs, but never really sharing the stage until that project. So, we had a lot to say. (unintelligible) on this new one. (Laugh)

Tavis: There is a lot to say. You mentioned earlier, Al, being on the same label again, and the label saying we've got studios, we've got both of you on the same label, let's make this happen. How cool is the story, speaking of studios, of how Paul McCartney got on this record? That story is, like, so cool. So he's in a studio next to you guys, recording something else. I'll let you tell the story, go ahead.

Jarreau: Go ahead, George. (Laugh)

Benson: I can tell you this. He came in to pay his respects. I've been knowing him for twenty-something years.

Tavis: Cat came in from a studio next door, where he was recording something.

Jarreau: That's right.

Benson: He was on the grounds, because it's a big complex, it's got a lot of studios. And out of the clear blue sky, he comes in. Now, everybody in the room, we got superstars in there, Herbie Hancock and, and Stanley Clark...

Tavis: And George Benson and Al Jarreau.

Benson: He came in; he wanted to meet Al. 'Cause he'd never met Al. And he came in and he said, 'George,' and everybody's jaw dropped. I said, 'That looks like n no.' They said, 'That looks like Paul McCartney.' I said, 'Sir Paul McCartney to you.' (Laugh) And we had a very friendly meeting. And Al, tell him what happened when I asked him. 'Cause we were playing back Sam Cooke's tune...

Jarreau: 'Bring It On Home.'

Benson: 'Bring It On Home.'

Jarreau: And we were listening to it again, getting ready to do some work on it ourselves. And George says, 'Paul, you know this song, don't you? (Laugh) Would you do it? Would you sing it down for?' Paul says, 'Do you believe the bloody cheek of this guy? I'm trying to do me own album next door, (laugh) he's getting me to sing on his album. What do you think (unintelligible).' (Laugh) Two days later...

Tavis: But it worked.

Jarreau: Two days later, he came back. He thought about it, and two days later, he came back and was ready to sing. (Laugh)

Tavis: That is a cool story.

Jarreau: Oh, it's a wonderful story.

Tavis: So McCartney just drops in, and two days later, here he is on the record.

Jarreau: Amen.

Benson: And you know something? He shocked us.

Jarreau: That's something else.

Benson: Yeah.

Jarreau: That's something else.

Benson: Yeah. (Laugh) He shocked us, because we figured he was gonna come in and do a decent version, and his voice along would have given it a character that people would have appreciated. But no, he tore the song up. He made it his own. Sam Cooke would have been pleasantly surprised.

Tavis: That's bold, to try to even touch anything Sam did, anyway.

Benson: That's right.

Tavis: Speaking of which, how did you n there's a great collection of stuff on here. 'Breezin',' I was so glad to hear the 'Breezin'' piece on here. How did you decide what was gonna go on the record? 'Cause you got all this genius between the two of you, but you gotta cut it down to, like, 13, 14 songs.

Jarreau: Well, we took our fake book along the way and started thumbing through all the great songs that had ever been written. But early at our first meeting, John Burk, who produced the record over at Concord, he had to have been thinking how great it would be for us to do each other's material. So, I did a lyric for 'Breezin',' and I take the lead line singing the melody. And then George does 'Morning,' and I do some little (unintelligible), do some vocal percussion in the back. And...

Benson: Oh, it's great stuff. It isn't just a little vocal percussion in the back. (Laugh) It's incredible stuff that made me go to the moon with my performance. I wanted it to be happy, like his. That is the greatest morning song I've ever heard. When you hear that on the radio, it really (unintelligible).

Tavis: It feels like morning, doesn't it?

Benson: Yeah. It really, nothing's more appropriate than that. So I wanted to make the instrumental in that ballpark, keep it on the light side. It'll get heavy; do some slick chords and all that dumb stuff. In this case, I would call it dumb stuff. (Laugh) But we kept it on the light side with single lines, and Al just came in with his harmonics and harmony, and just did a number on it.

Tavis: Let me pick up on a point you made a moment ago, George. What does it mean to be in a studio, or even on a stage, with an artist who you respect the way you do Al, the way Al respects you, but any artist who is a legend, there ain't a whole lot of them, but a legend in his or her own time? You get a chance to play with them. To your earlier point, I suspect that just being with them makes you elevate your game on that particular day.

Benson: There's no doubt about it.

Jarreau: No question about it.

Benson: Now, in our lives, we have shared the bandstand, or taken leave from the greatest artists of our time. We hung out with the best. Like he said, he mentioned Jon Hendricks, and we've taken, Billy Epstein...

Tavis: Wes Montgomery. (Laugh)

Benson: I was on the road with Duke Ellington. I took the Count Basie band on tour. I was on the road with Sarah Vaughn, I substituted for Ella Fitzgerald. It just don't come any better than that. And I recorded with Miles Davis; I was on the road with Freddie Hubbard and Stanley (unintelligible) and Grover Washington, Jr. I took Kenny G from Seattle and had him open our show, and he became a superstar while he was working with me, in a very short time.

So I know the different sides of this business. But like you said, I know that Al today has grown to the place where he is now considered probably the premiere jazz singer of our time right now.

Jarreau: So how about us being in the studio situation with greats like Herbie Hancock, who's on the record, and Stanley Clark, who's on the record.

Benson: Marcus Miller.

Jarreau: Marcus Miller, Patrice Rushen. Oh, it elevates your game. You got it exactly right. You just go, you're inspired by what they play, and you sing beyond what you normally do.

Tavis: Now, the flip side of that question, Al Jarreau, is you answered this question, and I'm really impressed. You tell me how, at this point in your career, as excellent as you are, you can, in fact, elevate your game. Is there a higher level than what Jarreau has already given us? What's left?

Jarreau: You mean including this record?

Tavis: Including anything.

Jarreau: Well, (laugh) listen to...

Tavis: How did you get better? How do you elevate your game on any given day? You're good all the time.

Jarreau: Well, I think some different things happened on this record. I think my performance on 'Tutu' is a different Al Jarreau than people normally have heard. I think what George and I did together in this little song called 'Don't Start No Stuff' (laugh), that interplay that we n and that's a funny story in itself, if we have time, we'll get to that one. (unintelligible)

Tavis: Go ahead and tell me now, tell me now.

Jarreau: In our first meeting, I arrived a little bit before George does over at Concord Record in John Burk's office, and I go in and I say, 'I have to go to the bathroom, would you get me a cup of coffee and bring it in John's office?' And the lady says, 'Okay, I'll do that.' I come out of the bathroom and go back in John Burk's office, and George is drinking a cup of coffee. (Laugh) 'George, what you doing with my coffee?' Well, he had ordered a cup of his own, and they had brought it to him, and so he said, 'Don't start no stuff.'

Tavis: Start no stuff. (Laugh)

Jarreau: And we both, well, we should write a song like that. (Laugh) We could n there it is.

Tavis: There it is, yeah. (Laugh)

Jarreau: There it is, there it is. So we have this back and forth. (Laugh) I've never done that before. Never to have that kind of interplay back and forth with a musician singer as we did on that. Just brilliant, brilliant stuff.

Benson: Well, as you know, I don't take anything too serious. Because it's all a gift that's been given to us. The ability to do what we do. So I don't take it too serious. And I think people feel that in my music. I think that's one of the appeals of my music. When you hear 'Breezin',' you actually hear my personality coming out. And I've met so many great people.

When you hang out with Wes Montgomery, (unintelligible), Grant Green, B. B. King, then you know in that picture, you are not considered (laugh) like this. You're just hanging out. If you're good enough, you might be able to hang out, but you're not...

Tavis: But speaking of flip side, the flip side, the B side to that record, George Benson, the B side would be that every time for me, at least, I see you put out any project, I wonder to myself how good it must feel to be George Benson when they told you, and the lyrics to one of your great tracks speaks to this, when they told you that you had no business singing. They told you you could play, but somebody told you...

Benson: It's true.

Tavis: Some fool told you...

Jarreau: Can you imagine that? Some fool.

Tavis: Somebody completely stuck on stupid told you (laugh) that you didn't have no business singing. Do you think about that every time you put a record out?

Benson: I stopped thinking about it a long time ago.

Jarreau: Long time ago. (Laugh)

Benson: You know the reason why? And it was my own manager who got mad at me, because we did n Bill Cosby was gracious enough to put us on the 'Tonight Show' when it was Johnny Carson's, in New York, 1968. And I was...

Tavis: Cosby was guest hosting.

Benson: And we were all n yeah, he was guest hosting, and the band was scared to death. And I went on and I sang a song. The last thing I should have did. (Laugh) It wasn't good, I didn't look good, and they didn't hear enough of my guitar playing, 'cause we had to do short versions of everything. So my manager was very angry when I came off. 'You are the world's greatest jazz guitar player. Don't sing, man. You are not a singer.'

And I said, 'Oh, okay, I heard that.' (Laugh) So I backed off of the singing. And then I ran into a producer, this is seven years later, who said, 'George, I heard you sing in San Francisco, and I can't understand why the record companies are not using your voice.' And when we got to the record company, they asked me who I wanted to produce.

I said, 'What's that guy's name who said I could sing? (Laugh) That's the guy who's gonna produce my record.' And he found the song 'This Masquerade,' which changed my whole life.

Tavis: Yeah. Wow. I was surprised when I heard you in concert suggest this summer that your biggest record the world over is 'In Your Eyes.'

Benson: Yeah, outside of the United States.

Tavis: Outside the United States, exactly. That's surprised me. That's a great song, but of all the hits you had, why do you think that song 'In Your Eyes' becomes the biggest seller outside the States?

Benson: You gotta remember that there's a lot of romanticism. You go to Spain, they like romanticisms. France, they love romanticism. South America, forget it. Romanticism. Australia, they all love romanticism. And see in this country, it couldn't compete with what was on the radio, 'cause everybody was rocking and socking, and hip-hopping, and they didn't wanna compete.

Well, so they missed twice. They missed with (singing) nothing's gonna change my love. 'Cause I had it out first, and they wouldn't put it out as a single again. And then the kid from Hawaii was trying to copy me. (Laugh) And he had a number one record around the world. So that's not unusual.

Tavis: Right.

Benson: In this country, 'Turn Your Love Around' was my biggest record, believe it or not. It was bigger than 'This Masquerade,' bigger than 'On Broadway,' bigger than 'Give Me the Night.'

Tavis: Yeah.

Benson: But 'Breezin'' is the biggest album.

Jarreau: (unintelligible) up tempo. Not a ballad (unintelligible) romantic.

Benson: Up tempo stuff.

Tavis: Just out of curiosity, Mr. Jarreau, do you happen to know what your biggest record is? Is it 'Morning,' is it...

Jarreau: Probably 'Morning' or 'We're In This Love Together.'

Tavis: 'We're In This Love Together,' yeah.

Jarreau: So kind of an up tempo thing again. But 'After All' is right in there pretty close, too. A ballad.

Tavis: If we start this, we'll be here all night. Talking about great records by these two cats. (Laugh) I don't have enough time in a night, let alone a week or a month to talk about all the hits they have had individually. Thankfully for you and for me, they are together. George Benson and Al Jarreau, (laugh) appropriately titled 'Givin' It Up.' I love you both, and thanks for giving it up tonight. I appreciate it.

Jarreau: Oh, God bless you. It's wonderful to be here, we're flattered. (Laugh)

Tavis: Glad to have you. Gotta get this. Add this to your collection. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.