An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett
The song of the day for Monday, December 5, 2022, is “Capital City.”
“Capital City” was written by Alf Clausen and Jeff Martin in 1990. Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself on The Simpsons in the episode “Dancin’ Homer.” “Dancin’ Homer” was the 5th episode in Season 2 of The Simpsons. It originally aired on November 8, 1990.
The song was released as “Dancin’ Homer” in 1997 on the album Songs In The Key of Springfield, released by Rhino Records.
The Album of the Month for June 2015 is Tony Bennett: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook.
This month’s album is actually two albums in one: Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers & Hart Songs and Tony Bennett Sings … More Great Rodgers & Hart. Both of these albums were released in 1973 on Bennett’s own Improv label, which he created after leaving Columbia and a brief relationship with Verve/MGM. The two original Rodgers and Hart albums were re-mastered and released on a single CD in 2005 as Tony Bennett Sings The Rodgers and Hart Songbook. This album is available for purchase from Amazon.com.
These recordings featured the Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet, with Braff on trumpet, Barnes on guitar, Wayne Wright on guitar and John Burr on bass.
Mr. Bennett describes how this project came together his autobiography The Good Life:
My main focus in l ate 1973 became the brilliant trumpet playing of Rudy Braff. I’d known Ruby since 1951 when I first played in Chicago. Ruby heard George Barnes and Bucky Pizzarelli playing at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, and he sat in with the two guitarists. He loved the way that combination sounded, and suggested to George that they start a group. The gradually worked out a lineup of two guitars, a trumpet, and a bass. When I heard about this group, I had to check them out. I though they were great, and Ruby said to me, “Why don’t you come and sing a couple of tunes with us, and relax for a while, you know?” I was singing almost exclusively with big bands then, and even with a good sound system, I always had to belt it out to be heard above the music.
I liked the groove I got into with this intimate group so much that I did two special concerts with them at Alice Tully Hall in New York. Ruby and George and played the first half instrumentally, and then I came out in the second half and sang with them–two entire evenings of Rodgers and Hart. Two weeks later I recorded twenty-four Rodgers and Hart songs with Ruby and George, with Frank Laico as engineer. It was later released as Tony Bennett: The Rodger and Hart Songbook.
I am a huge fan of these two albums. I adore the sound from the quartet and Tony Bennett as much I adore the music of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart–which is quite a lot. Everytime I listen, I am so taken at how perfect this group with Bennett is for these songs … all without a piano or drums.
I am currently reading a wonderful book by Dominic Symonds: We’ll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers & Hart. This book was published in 2015 by The Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0-19-992948-1) as part of The Broadway Legacies Series. I’ll be sharing thoughts from this author and others on the work of Rodgers and Hart over the month. This book is available from Amazon.com.
The album of the month for May 2015 is Steppin’ Out.
Stepping’ Out (CK 57424) was released by Columbia on October 5, 1993. The album was produced by David Kahne, with Danny Bennett as executive producer. Bennett is accompanied by the Ralph Sharon Trio on this album, with Doug Richeson on bass and Clayton Cameron on drums. Tony Bennett and Ralph Sharon arranged all the songs on this album. The album went gold in the US and won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.
This album features some of the greatest songs from the American songbook, all of which were introduced by Fred Astaire. In the mid-1970s, Tony Bennett moved to Los Angeles, as he describes in The Good Life:
But the greatest thing about living in L.A. was the chance to get to know two of my biggest idols, Ella Fitzgerald and Fred Astaire. Fred was well over seventy by the time we got acquainted, but he was still very active. Every morning he’d take his daily constitutional, and he’d walk right by my house. He was so graceful he actually looked like he was floating as he strolled by.
…
Fred told me that he was no longer athletic and that he only acted and wrote songs these days. We were sitting in a little art studio I had, completely separate from the rest of the house, and listening to the local jazz station. I had to go back to the main house to answer the phone. When I returned, I caught Fred Astaire dancing to a song on the radio. It was tremendous. He stopped as soon as he saw me and his face turned red. He asked me who was singing the blues, and I told him Big Joe Turner. Fred said, ‘It’s always been that way. When I hear the right beat, I just have to dance.’
Next to listening to Tony Bennett sing, watching a Fred Astaire film is as good as gets for this reader. I hope you enjoy our look at this great album and the songs on it. Oh yes, fair warning: I think there will be a lot of YouTube videos this month.
The album of the month for April 2015 is Tony Bennett on Holiday.
Tony Bennett on Holiday was released by Columbia Records on February 4, 1997. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Tony Bennett on Holiday was produced by Tony Bennett and Danny Bennett, his son. The cover art features Bennett’s portrait of Billie Holiday.
2015 marks the centennial year of the birth of Billie Holiday. She was born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her birth certificate lists her name as Eleanora Fagan. Her mother, Sadie Fagan, was nineteen years old when Eleanora was born. Her father was Clarence Holiday, who still a high school student when Sadie became pregnant. Clarence was a well-known rhythm guitarist and banjo player who played with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and other bands during the late 1920s and 1930s.
Much has been written about the tragic life of Billie Holiday. However, we will be focusing on her astounding talent as a jazz vocalist.
Last year, a visitor to The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography left the following comment, which I have been thinking about ever since:
I was surprised to discover that Tony Bennett’s tribute to Lady Day rang truer than all of the other attempts to politicize her, racialize her, or use her as a self-promotional “career stepping stone.” Tony captures the Lady of the Gardenias that struck Sinatra to the core when he first heard her in the late ’30s, causing him to list her as chief among all his inspirations and influences.
I’ll be doing something a bit different with this album. In addition to featuring Bennett’s songs on the album, I’ll also be including Billie Holiday’s version as well so that we can examine how true Tony Bennett’s tribute is.
The album of the month for March, 2015 is Tony Sings For Two.
Tony Sings For Two was released by Columbia Records on February 6, 1961.
This album is particular favorite of this author. It’s the album I find myself turning to often when feeling, like one of the readers of this blog once typed into Google as a search string: “I just want to hear Tony Bennett and nobody else right now.”
On October 28, 1959, Tony Bennett and Ralph Sharon walked into the CBS 30th Street Studio with a lot of sheet music and recorded one of Tony Bennett’s greatest and most timeless albums. Bennett tells the story in The Good Life:
I always wanted to be unpredictable, and so for my next project, I decided to go in the opposite direction from the big orchestral albums I’d been doing lately and cut an intimate piano-vocal album with Ralph Sharon. We booked time in the studio and pored over music books, trying one tune after another. The arrangements were spontaneous and we finished each song in one or two takes. In one afternoon, we laid down sixteen tunes — which must be some kind of record — twelve of which made it onto the album, which became 1961’s Tony Sings For Two. Mitch Miller showed up at the start of these sessions, furious that I was really going through with it. When he saw there was no dissuading me, he turned to Frank Laico and say, “I’m leaving, I can’t support this.” Tony Sings For Two turned out to be one of my finest records ever.
In an age of the big orchestral albums, what I call the Melanchrino Strings Effect, it was an extraordinary album to release. The selection of songs was, and remains, perfect — all great songs from the American Songbook. Great songs, great vocals, great piano. I hope you’ll enjoy this exploration as much I plan to.