Stay tuned for more details … from what we’ve read, this is shaping up to be a terrific album.
Speak Low
Speak Low (music by Kurt Weill; lyrics by Ogden Nash) is one several Kurt Weill songs that Tony performs. This is one of our favorites at The Year of Tony Bennett.
Tony Bennett and Norah Jones, from Duets II.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRm08pVt-xc?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Love is pure gold; and time a thief!
Fly Me To The Moon
Mr. Bennett has recorded only two versions of this song.
This song was originally called In Other Words, but the publishers later changed the title to Fly Me To The Moon. Mr. Bennett says in the booklet included in Forty Years of Tony Bennett that “composer extraordinaire Bart Howard always felt that this was the definitive performance of his song.” You’ll get no argument from me; this arrangement is exquisitely beautiful and haunting.
I think it’s interesting that other than the live MTV performance, Tony Bennett has not re-recorded the song with another arrangement. But how do you improve on perfection?
That said, my favorite version of this song has never been recorded. It was the version that Mr. Bennett sang at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington on September 14, 2007. This was my first Tony Bennett performance. By the time I bought my tickets, there were no orchestra seats left and I could only get tickets in what was (optimistically) called the mezzanine. At that time, I didn’t know that at certain concert halls, Mr. Bennett sometimes sings this song a capella, without a microphone. Towards the end of the concert, he put down his microphone and started to sing Fly Me To The Moon. Even in back of the house, his voice filled the auditorium. All of us hung on every note, never wanting this beauty to ever end. I’ve since heard him do the song without a microphone, but nothing could have prepared me for that first moment. It was, and remains, a moment of pure magic.
Note: While the versions of this song are the same on If I Ruled The World as it is on the two compilation albums, the time on If I Ruled The World is shorter by 11 seconds, as it omits a short piano-only introduction that is included later. But it is the same version, recorded on February 18, 1965.
Fly Me To The Moon
Music and Lyrics: Bart Howard
Written in 1954.
Poets often use many words
To say a simple thing
It takes thought and time and rhyme
To make a poem sing
With music and words I’ve been playing
For you I have written a song
To be sure that you know what I’m saying
I’ll translate as I go along
Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words
Hold my hand
In other words
Darling kiss me
Fill my heart with song
And let me sing forevermore
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore
In other words
Please be true
In other words
I love you.
Antonia Bennett
It can’t be easy to be the child of a legend and to follow in his footsteps. But Antonia Bennett has done just that and stands as a very gifted artist and singer on her own. She often tours with her father and is currently touring with him this summer in Europe. The Year of Tony Bennett has had the pleasure of hearing her several times and look forward to hearing her open for her father at each concert. We especially enjoy hearing them sing a favorite Stephen Sondheim song from Merrily We Roll Along: Old Friends.
She is a serious student of music and studied at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. She’s a gifted performer and we look forward to hearing her for a long time to come.
We are currently listening to her EP album Natural, a collection of jazz standards, and are enjoying it very much. Natural was released by Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings and is available at Amazon and on iTunes.
For more information about Antonia Bennett, visit her website at www.antoniabennett.com.
Some interviews and recording links:
- Jazz Times wrote about Miss Bennett in 2010.
- And this interview filmed at SXSW in 2011.
Tony Bennett Interviews from the 1980s and 1990s
We thank Hulu and NBC for putting together this collection of interviews for viewing. Interviewers include Tom Snyder, Rona Elliot, Jonathan Schwartz, Gene Shalit, and Matt Lauer.
[hulu id=U48MaUgeEykVFTWFGUCTmA width=512 height=288]
Sorry for the commercials between sessions. Runs about 35 minutes, including the ads.
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