The Year of Tony Bennett

Our friend Annie Ross, the great British jazz singer, proposed the idea one night when we were having dinner in London. Of course I knew the name. Bill Evans was probably the most legendary jazz pianist in the world at the time. He had played with Miles Davis’s sextet when they recorded Kind of Blue, which is considered just about the most influential, and certainly the best-selling, jazz album of all time. But I knew that Bill didn’t often record with singers. His stellar use of impressionist harmonies and block chords (chords built directly below the melody, usually on the strong beats) were considered as innovative as those of Miles.

Tony Bennett