HarbourView Equity Partners, an industry-leading alternative asset management company focused on investment opportunities in the sports, media and entertainment space, announced today that the company has agreed to purchase the master royalty income of iconic Jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter George Benson.
Benson has the rare distinction of being in the pop consciousness while remaining in the pantheon of jazz greats. With 36 studio albums, and 8 live albums, the 10-time Grammy-winner has summited the pop, R&B, soul, and jazz charts.
His 1976, three-time Grammy-winning album, Breezin‘, boasting the pop-jazz vocal smash “This Masquerade,” topped the jazz, pop, and R&B charts and remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time – it has since been certified 3x platinum.
Benson’s 1980 smash, “Give Me The Night,” produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton (Michael Jackson), rocketed to the top of the soul single charts.
In 2009, Benson was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship— the highest honor that our nation bestows on jazz artists. In addition, Benson has rightly earned a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, as well as honorary doctorate degrees from Morris Brown College, the Berklee School of Music, and Duquesne University.
In 2018, Benson collaborated with subversive art-pop band, Gorillaz, featuring Blur’s Damon Albarn and visual artist Jamie Hewlett, to co-write and perform on the track “Humility,” which has amassed over 100 million YouTube views and counting. In 2021, DJ Steve Aoki remixed Benson’s hit “Give Me the Night” with a rugged house beat introducing the irresistible R&B-pop gem to a whole new audience.
Benson remains a vital force in modern music. His current albums have earned prime features and rave reviews in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, American Songwriter, Forbes, and Newsweek. He recently co-wrote, performed the title track, and appeared in the video for funk pioneer Bootsy Collins Power Of The One. In 2020, he was inducted into the jazz bible DownBeat Magazine‘s “Hall of Fame.” The following year he was inducted by music legend Quincy Jones into New Jersey’s Hall of Fame—an honor from which he received a personal congratulatory note from President Obama.
His successful live concert history speaks to his vitality as a performing artist – Benson walks that delicate balance between being a consummate performer and an adventurous instrumentalist. He remains an annual must-see artist who regularly packs and often sells out such hallowed venues as The Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall, Hampton Court Palace, and Sydney Opera House. Benson is also a marquee artist at many U.S. Jazz and international festivals, including Montreux Jazz Fest.
HarbourView Equity Partners founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke Soares said, “We maintain a commitment to be a canon for legendary culture movers such as George Benson. His artistry is distinct in its sound, with acoustics that forever stir emotions of a musical era that means so much to so many of us. We are proud to stand in partnership and welcome him to the HarbourView family.”
Fox Rothschild served as legal counsel to HarbourView in this transaction. George Benson was represented by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
