Duets (An American Classic) - Tony Bennett

...by recording an album of duets with some of today's musical giants, including such "youngsters" as Paul McCartney, Elton John and Billy Joel, along with the likes of Sting, Bono and James Taylor.

When it's your 80th birthday party, it's only fair that you get to choose not only the guests but the music too, and Bennett has wisely stuck to the old standards, the American Songbook classics, inviting his new, young whippersnapper ...
...to "proper songs", as my late grandmother would have called them. By and large, this compilation is a success, throwing up one or two surprises, for me at least, along the way.

There are nineteen tracks on the album, which gets off to an energetic start with Dixie Chicks providing Andrews Sisters-style backing vocals on Lullaby of Broadway. It's a slick production, guaranteed to get your fingers clicking and your feet tapping, ... more

They say that you start to turn into your parents as you grow older, and in terms of musical appreciation, I've probably been undergoing that metamorphosis for the past couple of years. That's not to say, however, that I've lost touch completely with contemporary music, and I'm always intrigued when artistes from different generations and musical genres get together to perform, whether it's on-stage or in the recording studio. Having reached the age of 80 earlier this year, Tony Bennett has followed in the footsteps of his great mentor, Frank Sinatra, by recording an album of duets with some of today's musical giants, including such "youngsters" as Paul McCartney, Elton John and Billy Joel, along with the likes of Sting, Bono and James Taylor.

When it's your 80th birthday party, it's only fair that you get to choose not only the guests but the music too, and Bennett has wisely stuck to the old standards, the American Songbook classics, inviting his new, young whippersnapper friends to show what they're capable of when it comes to "proper songs", as my late grandmother would have called them. By and large, this compilation is a success, throwing up one or two surprises, for me at least, along the way.

There are nineteen tracks on the album, which gets off to an energetic start with Dixie Chicks providing Andrews Sisters-style backing vocals on Lullaby of Broadway. It's a slick production, guaranteed to get your fingers clicking and your feet tapping, and it makes for a good, strong, opener to this collection, which moves comfortably between ballads, jazz and big-band style music.

Barbara Streisand's voice is as unfaltering as ever, gliding through Smile (Though Your Heart is Aching) with the consummate grace you would expect from a performer of her standing, and both she and Bennett are clearly at ease in each other's musical company. Diana Krall and k.d.lang are, of course, no strangers to this style of music either, and Krall gives a flawless and highly polished rendition of The Best Is Yet To come, while lang's velvety-smooth tones in Because Of You are the musical equivalent of a warming glass of brandy on a cold winter's evening.

Letting the female side down just a little is Celine Dion, and while she certainly possesses the vocal power necessary for If I Ruled The World, a natural blockbuster of a number in anybody's book, there are one or two moments when she seems to forget that this is a joint effort, prompting Bennett to move chivalrously into the background, re-emerging in time for the song's dramatic climax.

Michael Buble, despite his comparative youth, is another whose contribution is an effortless task, and sounding uncannily like a very young Frank Sinatra, he and Bennett blend well together during Just in Time. The same can be said for Elvis Costello, a natural jazz singer perhaps, whose voice is almost indistinguishable from Bennett's in a classy rendition of Are You Having Any Fun? It seemed that the answer was a resounding "yes", in this case.

James Taylor and Billy Joel both put in creditable performances; Taylor with a jaunty, foot-tapping version of Put On A Happy Face and Joel, Bennett's fellow New Yorker, proving his vocal versatility in The Good Life. Bono is another pleasant surprise, crooning his way through I Wanna Be Around, and Elton John gives a competent and enthusiastic rendition of Rags to Riches, camping it up in true Elton-style.

Paul McCartney is one of the few disappointments on this album, and while he starts off well enough in The Very Thought Of You, his voice tapers off towards the middle, and, finding it increasingly difficult to hit some of the more difficult notes, he resorts to almost speaking, rather than singing the odd word or two. Stevie Wonder is far more able during For Once In My Life, the song he recorded the year after Bennett's version was released, incidentally, but even he seems to get lost along the way, moving up and down the scale in places, a la Whitney Houston. It's as though, having performed the song so many times, he has tried to do something a little different here, but having looked forward to this track, I felt that he would have done better to have kept things simple.

Perhaps the least impressive contribution comes from Sting, who really doesn't get to grips with The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, his voice too thin and reedy to cope with this melancholy Parisian-sounding ballad. I'm not sure whether it's a case of the wrong choice of song, or whether, in Bennett's company, he would have struggled regardless; nevertheless this is possibly the weakest track on the album.

I have to confess that I'm not familiar with the works of three of Bennett's singing partners, John Legend, Tim McGraw and Juanes, but each makes an impressive contribution, with the latter's The Shadow of Your Smile taking on a Latin American feel, both Bennett and Juanes opting to sing the second half of the lyrics in Spanish.

Bennett relies on his own company, and that of pianist Lee Moniker for the penultimate track, I Left My Heart In San Francisco. Rightly so, in this instance, since the song is undisputedly his theme tune, and here he gives it the simplest, but nonetheless effective of treatments. The piano accompaniment is minimal, and in places, Bennett could almost be singing a capella, proving that he doesn't need a big backing orchestra to do justice to the song with which he will always be linked.

The biggest surprise of all for me was George Michael's performance in How Do You Keep The Music Playing, surely not the easiest of songs to sing. Michael's voice takes on a depth which isn't, perhaps, heard in much of his contemporary work, and he proves more than capable of holding onto a note, complementing Bennett's style perfectly during Michel LeGrand's haunting melody.

Until now, I've barely mentioned the performance of Tony Bennett himself, saving, as it were, the best until last. It's incredibly difficult to believe that this man is eighty years of age, such is the strength and quality of his voice, not to mention the verve and enthusiasm with which he continues to sing these classic songs. Granted, his voice is a touch rasping these days, a little huskier maybe, but just when you think he isn't going to hit that final note, he goes and pulls it off, defying anybody who might dare to suggest that he ought to consider hanging up his microphone.

Whilst giving the impression that it's all a bit of a doddle for him, there's never a time when you feel that he isn't giving value for money, and he sails effortlessly through the album, clearly enjoying the experience. The album probably isn't one for the purists, but it's as good a place as any to start if you're just beginning the transition into fogeyhood, but can't quite bring yourself to go the whole hog. And if you still feel that you're far too young for this kind of thing, well, you might feel differently in another twenty years or so; I have the feeling that Mr Bennett might very well still be around.
 

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