Both the first and second quintet are my favorite Miles. As for Benson smoking McLaughlin, I can't agree or even compare; they're very different players. Benson did try to move out of his comfort zone and fit in with Miles' band on "Miles in the Sky"; gotta credit him for that. But McLaughlin was definitely the guitar player Miles had been looking for.
Though I like some of George's CTI records to some extent, none of them really do him justice. I saw him live on 6 different nights (and heard 3 sets each of those nights) at Chicago's "Jazz Showcase" before he recorded "Masquerade" and became a pop star and let me tell you... he was BADASS! He had his signature licks, but every set, he played some fresh stuff that I'd never heard him play before or since. As far as the big box, archtop jazz guitar players go, he was one of the best. And not that chops are what makes a player great, but he had more chops than any of those other guys; Pass, Montgomery, Hall, Burrell, Farlow, Rainey, etc.
As for the "smooth jazz" thing, Benson and a few others like Grover Washington were doing that sort of thing long before it had that label, or the popularity it would achieve. He always had a little r&b in his thang... and he always sang one or two tunes on his albums. After a while, he capitalized on that aspect, but within the jazz world, he more than proved himself as a player to be reckoned with previously.
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