A Modern Jazz Quartet

By Joan Downs

George Benson: Bad Benson (CTI; $5.98). George Benson is in every way a superior guitarist to Beatle George Harrison, for example, or to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. Benson's uncluttered swinging blues set guitar-playing standards that quickly made his name known to every serious jazz buff. But after 20 years in an industry whose inflated lexicon calls every rock performer a star, Benson is still little recognized by the public. His style is romantic but ascetic -- free of unnecessary electric trickery. Although he favors the slow tempi of Paul Desmond's Take Five, he can erupt in a blistering display of technique and energy like My Latin Brother. This record is bad in the traditional jazz sense: that means it is very good indeed.

Stanley Clarke (Nemperor; $6.98). Clarke, 23, can play anything from a soft-shoe acoustic bass to taut Spanish classic strings to a wailing electric bass. His background includes classical bass studies and ensemble playing with Stan Getz, Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Imaginative stick work by Drummer Tony Williams provides an effective foil for Clarke over much of his first LP.

Billy Cobham: Total Eclipse (Atlantic; $6.98). An alumnus of Miles Davis and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham evolved from a progressive rhythm-and-blues drummer to a deft jazz writer-arranger. His music, often danceable, reflects Caribbean and Latin American rhythmic and tonal influences. Solarization, a 10 1/2-minute elaboration of a five-note motif, is sometimes ruminative, but at other times radiates sizzling sensuality.

Thad Jones and Mel Lewis: Potpourri (Philadelphia International Records; $6.98). Eighteen jazz all-stars make up one of the last of the big bands. Many jazz connoisseurs also consider it the best. In nine years of one-night stands since its founding by Trumpeter Jones and Drummer Lewis, J. & L. has perfected a loose, flexible sound. The title refers to the multiracial, three-generation profile of the personnel -- Trombonist Cliff Heather is 70, Trumpeter Jon Faddis is 21 -- as well as to the program.

The best tracks are Thad Jones' bittersweet ballad Yours and Mine and the group's dramatic perambulation through Stevie Wonder's Living for the City.

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