RANDY GUITAR B, "Mr. B"

After decades of honing his craft in Houston clubs, leading The Collaboration Band, sharing licks with heroes like George Benson and Norman Brown, and balancing music with a long career as an electrician, Randy Guitar B is finally discovering what happens when he stops measuring himself against the greats and simply lets Randy Burns play. Following his soulful, brass fired debut “Joy and More Joy” and the intimate vocal ballad “It’s You,” the multi-talented artist’s latest single, “Mr. B,” is a vibrant, groove-driven showcase for the instinctive musicianship, soulful tone and adventurous improvisational spirit that make him an increasingly distinctive voice in contemporary urban jazz.

Written by Buddy Jordan, Paul Brown and Brian Bromberg, with Jordan handling every instrumental part except Randy’s guitar, “Mr. B” immediately establishes its identity with a thumping rhythmic foundation and an infectious high-register synth motif that almost functions like a wordless vocal hook. Against that recurring melodic figure, Randy enters with crisp, fluid lines, weaving higher tones into warmer lower-register phrases while locking into the track’s funky, syncopated pulse. The effect is sleek and sophisticated but never overly polished. The track has a human looseness and easy elasticity that leaves room for Randy to react rather than simply execute.

That spontaneity is central to the story behind the recording. The musician was in Los Angeles working with two-time Grammy winner and prolific Billboard #1 hitmaker Paul Brown when Brown played him the melody and bridge and asked him to add some fills. Randy began experimenting, responding instinctively to what he was hearing. He didn’t initially realize that much of what he was inventing on the spot would become the finished lead performance.

“I was just fooling around trying to come up with ideas of what I would do,” Randy recalls. “I didn’t know that was going to be the actual song. I was just reacting to what I heard.”

That instinctive approach gives “Mr. B” its special spark. He moves from the main hook into a breezy, snappy verse, then gradually becomes more exploratory, stretching the melody with increasingly adventurous phrases. On the bridge, he reaches into his axe’s upper register with soaring lines and energetic strumming before returning to the recurring synth figure, answering it with increasingly colorful string flourishes. There is a fascinating call-and-response quality throughout, as though the synth and guitar are having their own musical conversation.

Then Randy showcases his deeper “guitarisma”. Rather than returning immediately to the hook, he launches into an unusually extended improvisation, moving between plucky low tones, crackling higher phrases and increasingly expressive runs while a restrained synth atmosphere hangs underneath. For a smooth jazz single, it is an especially generous stretch of improvisational freedom—and one that reveals why Randy considers improvising one of his greatest strengths. He isn’t merely filling space; he is following the music wherever it leads, from darker, more introspective passages back into the track’s buoyant central rhythmic foundation.

The title itself came almost accidentally. Randy’s stage name had already earned him the nickname “Mr. B” when Paul Brown’s wife, Jacqui, asked him after dinner, “How did you like the dinner, Mr. B?” The phrase stuck, and somehow it proved perfectly suited to a song that captures his personality so completely.

There is also a deeper philosophy behind the playing. Randy has spent years comparing himself to George Benson, an influence whose technique helped shape his own. Now, he says, he understands that mastering those influences was never about becoming another Benson. It was about developing the technique to discover his own voice. “I don’t just want to play the notes,” Randy says. “I want to make them move something.”

That may be the best description yet of Randy Guitar B’s artistry. On “Mr. B,” every crisp phrase, soulful lower-register line and joyful burst of spontaneity feels less like a demonstration of technique than an invitation to feel the music. And as he prepares to drop his forthcoming album A Beautiful World, that philosophy continues to guide him: in a world full of negativity, he wants his instrument to offer something brighter—joy, connection and a reason to keep listening.