The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: When In Rome

The song of the day for Monday, June 24, 2013 is “When In Rome.”

About This Song

“When In Rome” was written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh in 1964.

In the year 2000, part of his 70th birthday celebration at the Library of Congress, Stephen Sondheim chose a list of ‘Songs I Wish I Had Written (At Least in Part).’ On this list were several songs by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, most of which are songs that Tony Bennett has recorded including “When In Rome,” “The Best is Yet to Come,” and “The Rules of the Road.” Who am I to disagree with Stephen Sondheim and Tony Bennett? Not that I could. Not only do I love those songs, but I love how Tony Bennett sings them.

About This Version

Tony Bennett and Bill Evans chose “When In Rome” as one of the songs for their first album, The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album, released in 1975.

http://open.spotify.com/track/0z8NAX4UK2KxwvIUSvetdb
“When in Rome,” as well as The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, is available from iTunes.

Here’s a brief video from the Clint Eastwood documentary “The Music Never Ends” with Tony Bennett, showing Evans and Bennett on the Tonight Show playing this song.

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Song of the Day: But Beautiful

The song of the day for Tuesday, June 18, 2103 is “But Beautiful.”

About But Beautiful

“But Beautiful” was written in 1947 by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was written for the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road To Rio, which also starred Dorothy Lamour.  The light touch with a Brazilian theme of the performance in the film might not have predicted its inclusion as one the great jazz standards; it ranks at #133 on the Jazz Standards website. Both Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby recorded  “But Beautiful” in 1948. Its jazz beginnings were from instrumentalists; it was recorded in 1947 by Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis with later recordings by Stan Getz and Lionel Hampton. The jazz vocal versions soon followed, with recordings by Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and Johnny Hartman. Bill Evans played  “But Beautiful” frequently starting in 1974; it was an inspired choice for Bill Evans’ and Tony Bennett’s first album.

About This Version

We pick this song today as it was one of the highlights of the Tony Bennett concert we attended on Saturday, June 15. Accompanied by Gray Sargent on guitar, Bennett perfectly referenced the intensity and yearning of his 1975 recording with  Bill Evans from their first album.

http://open.spotify.com/track/3iBFz5Y4c2t0zjzdjJmijc
“But Beautiful,” as well as the original The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, is available from iTunes. The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, which also contains additional takes of several songs, is also available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Some Other Time

The song of the day for Thursday, May 9, 2013 is Some Other Time.

About This Song

Some Other Time was written for the 1944 musical On The Town by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The story concerns three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York, the women they meet and finally back on the ship to leave for the war. It’s a classic tale with some wonderful music by Bernstein, as good as much of West Side Story. Note that film version pays only the smallest nod to the Bernstein score, keeping only New York, New York and omitting the incredibly funny I Can Cook, Too, Lonely Town and today’s song, Some Other Time.

About This Version

Today’s song is from The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album, released in 1975. In the musical, the singers realize that as the sailors return to war, they may likely never see each other again, even as they say that they will catch up, some other time. This sense of sadness is at the core of this version, though as a sung solo, it takes on more personal sense of loss and sadness; lovers realizing that this is ending–with regret–but ending still. In the first few seconds of the song, when Bennett sings the first “oh well, we’ll catch up some other time” you can feel the enormous sense of loss and pain of this parting. And in spite of later moments of some bravado and even hope, we know that some other time most likely will not ever come. Bill Evans tells us so in the very last moments of the song, after Tony Bennett sings the last notes of some other time and the piano goes softer and higher up on the scale until it disappears completely in the middle of the melody. And then that final, isolated chord.

This recording, the third song on the album, is when I knew for certain that this was certainly not Tony Bennett being accompanied by one of the great jazz pianists of all time. Instead, it was two consummate jazz musicians meeting together and blending their respective instruments in a deep exploration of this song, which may sound deceptively simple and popular, but both musicians well understood the complex and elegant harmonies and shifts in the Bernstein score and at the same time stripping any sense of artifice from the song. Pain, beauty, love and loss. All at the same time, exquisitely performed.

http://open.spotify.com/track/7wuNnS40gfC3vF6NLoATqu
Some Other Time, as well as The Tony Bennett Bill Evans album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Young and Foolish

The song of the day for Monday, April 22, 2013 is Young and Foolish.

About This Song

Young and Foolish was written by Albert Hague and Arnold Horwitt for the 1955 musical, Plain and Fancy. The musical concerns two sophisticated New Yorkers traveling to an Amish community in Pennsylvania to sell a piece of property. Other songs from the show include How Do You Raise a Barn? and City Mouse, Country Mouse.

About This Version

Young and Foolish was the first cut on the Tony Bennett – Bill Evans album and sets the tone for the entire album.  Bill Evans had recorded the song in 1958 on Everybody Digs Bill Evans, his second album. It’s quite interesting to listen to Evans’ takes on the song over the 25 year span between these recordings.

Tony Bennett had recorded Young and Foolish in 1963 for This Is All I Ask, is a beautifully sung romantic ballad. In this version, we believe that the couple will be able to recreate the wonderful times when they were young and foolish. In this 1975 version, that feels like a memory that may be long gone in the relationship.

This is really an extraordinary recording by two great jazz performers.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4q9g66QBVulLS1C6XpggyJ
Young and Foolish, as well as The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album, is available from iTunes.

We also include Evans’ 1958 Young and Foolish from Everybody Digs Bill Evans.

Young And Foolish

Listen to Young And Foolish on Spotify. Song · Bill Evans · 1959

 

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Song of the Day: Waltz For Debby

The Song of the Day for August 18, 2012 is Waltz for Debby.

About Waltz for Debby

Bill Evans wrote Waltz for Debby in 1956. The Debby in the song was his three-year-old niece. Written originally as an instrumental piece, lyrics were later written by Gene Lees.  Even though the waltz meter has never been popular in jazz, Waltz for Debby has become a jazz classic. In addition to his Evans’ own recordings of the piece, it was also recorded by other jazz musicians, including Oscar Peterson and Johnny Hartman.

About This Version

Bennett and Evans recorded Waltz for Debby for their 1975 The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album.  It features a lengthy piano solo section by Evans.