| The Essential Tony Bennett | | Posted Monday, September 04, 2006 10:12:46 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Tony Bennett has a typical lack of effusiveness about the kudos of his seven-decade career, but he does reportedly display an inscribed picture from a longtime colleague and fellow saloon singer in his Manhattan apartment. It reads: "To the best goddamned pop singer I've ever heard." It's signed "Frank Sinatra." But don't take the Chairman's word for it. Just listen as these two discs bound from one masterly performance to the next, documenting a career whose ups and downs--Bennett actually went long years without a record contract--belie a robust evolution of vocal strength and subtlety of phrasing. The arc of Bennett's art in the decade from "Cold Cold Heart" and "Rags to Riches" to "The Best Is Yet To Come" and his signature "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" is remarkable enough, but it just keeps getting better. When the singer's management shrewdly orchestrated his MTV-powered "comeback" in the late 1980s and '90s, Bennett delivered considerably more than mere hype. Indeed, the highlights of those efforts (a warm, semi-autobiographical collection of ballads; tributes to Sinatra, Astaire, Ellington, and the blues; the obligatory MTV Unplugged set) included here barely skim the surface and arguably warrant a double-disc collection all their own. Still, the 39 tracks here represent the best kind of anthology: one that leaves you craving more. --Jerry McCulley... | |
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| | | A Wonderful World | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 10:12:28 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Never mind the project's odd couple, "He's got a girlfriend; so does she" marketing shuck. This is a musical love affair in all its splendor. Produced by the seemingly chameleonic producer T Bone Burnett (who previously revived traditional bluegrass with spectacular success on O Brother, Where Art Thou?), the septuagenarian legend and his unlikely contemporary foil affectionately court a dozen songs from the Louis Armstrong repertoire with the warmth and natural grace that have been a deceptively effortless Bennett trademark for 50-plus years. The pair kick proceedings off with a playful, irony-free "Exactly Like You," then perform a tender vocal waltz across both the ages and the masterful, sympathetic orchestrations of the late Peter Matz, one of Bennett's longtime collaborators. But it's on the more melancholy performances, like "If We Never Meet Again," "I'm Confessin'," and the Armstrong perennials "Wonderful World" and "Lucky Old Sun," that the pair tap into something akin to timeless musical telepathy. Her own talents hardly in need of burnishing, lang invests the project with some gratifying new smokiness and is rewarded with a postgraduate course in saloon singing for the ages. It's an album that begs the best kind of question: When do we get an encore? --Jerry McCulley... | |
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| | | Together Again | | Posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:11:49 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | The concept couldn't have been simpler, nor could it have been more perfect, just Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Together Again, in the wee small hours of the morning, engaged in an intimate musical dialog, with the recording tape rolling. Originally released in 1977 on Bennett's own Improv label, Concord Records is proud and honored to make this timeless classic available again. Remixed & remastered in high definition digital it features 18 tracks including 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'A Child Is Born' (Alt.), 'You Must Believe In Spring' (Alt.), 'Maybe September' (Alt.), 'You Don't Know What Love Is' (Alt.) & 'The Bad And The Beautiful' (Alt.). Concord. 2003.... | |
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| | | Duets | | Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 10:11:51 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Even in the face of epochal success, it's tempting to ponder what Barbra Streisand might have accomplished had she not spread herself across so many diverse entertainment media; so much ambition, so little time. This collection of 19 Streisand duets chronicles collaborations with Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland at one end of the scale and Don Johnson at the other. It finds the singer dabbling--if, as her bluesy miscue with Ray Charles on "Crying Time" argues, not necessarily triumphing--in styles she largely eschewed elsewhere in her career. Still, her unlikely collaborations with Barry Gibb ("Guilty," "What Kind of Fool") and Donna Summer ("No More Tears (Enough Is Enough") during the disco era scored her some of the biggest successes of her career, ample proof that with the right chemistry, Streisand could be as powerful a pop music chameleon as she was a diva. New recordings with veteran Barry Manilow (the warm, low-key "I Won't Be the One to Let You Go") and Josh Groban (David Foster's overwrought "All I Know of Love") supplement recordings that stretch from the '60s kitsch-a-go-go of Harold Arlen's "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" across five decades of Streisand's unparalleled career. --Jerry McCulley... | |
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| | | The Nightmare Before Christmas: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | | Posted Friday, August 25, 2006 10:12:15 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack features 10 ghoulishly delightful songs and score by renowned composer/songwriter Danny Elfman, lead singer of the popular rock group Oingo Boingo. Embracing the traditional musical structure of 10 songs and underscore, Elfman creates a musical landscape in which the story narrative is wholly integrated into each musical number. Allowing the film's fantastic characters to come convincingly to life, the songs set into "stop-motion" the fanciful tale of Jack Skellington with haunting melodies, vivid imagery, and spectacular wordplay. Supported by an evocative and suspenseful underscore, the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack is a dazzling marriage of music and innovative technique.The film's production numbers include: "This Is Halloween," the song that introduces the storyline; "Jack's Lament," in which Jack expresses his frustration with his life; "What's This?," Jack's exuberant testimonial to Christmastown; "Town Meeting Song," which introduces the denizens of Halloweentown; "Jack's Obsession," in which Jack realizes his newfound desire for Christmas; "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," which unveils Lock, Shock, and Barrel's plan to abduct Santa Claus; "Making Christmas," Halloweentown's off-kilter impression of Christmas; "Sally's Song," a tender ballad of unrequited love; "Oogie Boogie's Song," the evil demon's gloriously ghoulish tribute to himself; "Poor Jack," a song of self-awakening, in which Jack discovers he truly belongs in Halloweentown; and the finale reprise performed by Jack, Sally, and the citizens of Halloweentown.... | |
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| | | Time After Time | | Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 10:11:39 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Minus all the machinery that the music industry can put behind an artist, Eva Cassidy sang bewitchingly in Washington, D.C. and then died without fanfare in 1996, when she was a mere 33 years old. And then the world began hearing Cassidy, thanks largely to Songbird, a posthumous collection of locally released album tracks that went on to garner media attention, critical praise, and commercial success. This collection gathers both live and studio cuts delivered within warm, mostly acoustic settings; often it is simply Cassidy, her voice, and her guitar. Inside are some of Cassidy's best-executed covers, beginning with Paul Simon's "Kathy's Song" and ending with a stellar rendition of the traditional gospel "Way Beyond the Blue." In between are heart-wringing versions of Bill Withers's "Ain't No Sunshine" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." What distinguishes Cassidy so completely is her offhand ability to transform songs beyond their initial character with a voice that brilliantly mixes an airy floating quality and an edge that you know can pop open to reveal a belt-it-out strength to rival the best in the singer's trade. --Andrew Bartlett... | |
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| | | Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan | | Posted Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:11:49 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | The incomparable Maria Muldaur has always traversed a wide expanse of American music--in 2003, she recorded A Woman Alone with the Blues, a tribute to jazz icon Peggy Lee--and so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that she has now applied her interpretive gifts to the love songs of Bob Dylan. Choosing from among his classics ("I'll Be Your Baby Tonight") and lesser-known works ("Golden Loom"), Muldaur bravely recasts several songs in disparate grooves (reggae, Cajun, swing), and even allows keyboardist David Torkanowsky to sneak a few bars of the jazz standard "Ain't Misbehavin'" into the end of "Moonlight." As expected, Muldaur is most at home with lazy, country-blues treatments ("Buckets of Rain"). But she can also effectively pull off the intense drama of total sublimation, especially on "Wedding Song" and "Make You Feel My Love," which she renders so tenderly as to elicit a tear. The title track finds her trying to talk herself out of an unsuitable lover, yet one suspects she won't be able to outsmart her heart. On both "Lay Baby Lay" (the gender-switching version of "Lay Lady Lay") and "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," she eschews Dylan's urgent and poignant sexuality for sensuality, making both songs a study in how the sexes approach the chemistry of love. --Alanna Nash... | |
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| | | Strauss: Four Last Songs/12 Orchestral Songs | | Posted Thursday, August 17, 2006 10:11:40 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was one of those singers whom one either loves or hates. She was a "stylist," who inflected every phrase, every note in her urge to communicate what she considered to be the meaning of the text. Others feel that the only thing she communicated was her own need to impress people with her ability to communicate, and I believe she often forgot the difference between art and artfulness. Be that as it may, she was an outstanding Strauss singer, and her performance of the Four Last Songs, in particular, is legendary. Of course, having George Szell on the podium doesn't hurt either. He insures that the music shows the singer in the best possible light. --David Hurwitz... | |
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| | | Playin' with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues | | Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 6:11:59 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Tony Bennett's commercial renaissance of the 1980s and '90s was aided by a string of albums that communicated his essential values while providing conceptual rings (Sinatra, Astaire, women singers) for record buyers to grasp. Playin' with My Friends links duets with an assortment of marquee artists to a set of blues and blues-influenced standards. While Bennett is no Joe Turner or Bobby Bland, his upbeat style melds well with that of most of his guests. He achieves the proper level of brio on "Let the Good Times Roll" with B.B. King and sits in spiritedly with Stevie Wonder ("Everyday [I Have the Blues]") and Ray Charles (a moaning "Evenin'" that's the standout cut). In fact, it's the visitors, not the host, who occasionally misfire: Sheryl Crow sounds unsure of her putative pain on "Good Morning, Heartache," while Natalie Cole is simply too glib to make for a convincing "Stormy Weather." Still, Bennett, his small band, and the best of these cameos make Playin' more than just another series of superstar walk-ons. --Rickey Wright... | |
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| | | Dear Mr. Sinatra | | Posted Saturday, August 05, 2006 6:11:57 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | With his eternally boyish tenor and cheery romantic outlook, John Pizzarelli is a stylistic world apart from Frank Sinatra, he of the manly baritone and dark sensual undercurrents. But like his Italian-American forebear, he's a consummate swinger, and he knows how to make a lyric his own. Comprised mostly of tunes written for the Chairman, Dear Mr. Sinatra is a musical fan letter without the usual schmaltz or reverence. An actively intelligent singer and guitarist, Pizzarelli reshapes the material to fit his personality, whether quietly enunciating "You Make Me Feel So Young," scatting over a brief guitar solo on "How About You?," or making the emotions sneak up on you on a medley of "I See Your Face Before Me" and "In the Wee Small Hours (of the Morning)." He's equally at home with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra as he is with his working combo, largely because in John Clayton, he has a skilled arranger who is equally open to recasting the songs--dig the jagged rhythms, hesitation effects, and burnished tones on "I've Got You Under My Skin." Even as he asserts his own style, Pizzarelli subtly conveys his affection for Sinatra in his phrasing. The album also boasts an agreeable Frank-like running time of 39 minutes. --Lloyd Sachs... | |
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