After starting his career in New York and experimenting with the dreaded "instrumental pop," the guitarist settled in Baton Rouge and took a 7th Avenue stroll back to clean, straight-ahead jazz.

The first time Mark Whitfield met George Benson, his idol, Benson lied to the young guitarist. And Whitfield has been grateful ever since.

At the time, Whitfield, fresh out of the Berklee College of Music, was living in New York and trying to mak...