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Tony Bennett
Duets II
Columbia 0052
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Tony Bennett’s Duets II
seems to pick it up
where its predecessor
left off. While it’s no
surprise that he moves
easily along the musical
high road, what’s this
Lady Gaga, famous
for playing peek-a-boo
behind a shell game of
identities, can actually sell a song and more than hold her own in
the major leagues. Their pairing captures the best of the genre: the
jaunty back-and-forth between song and patter, the sense that each
is speaking and reacting to the other, even when tossing each other
scat lines.
They can bend to style, too. Bennett’s partners come from the far
corners of a musical world that no longer has an anchoring center.
But it turns out that nothing is more welcoming or compliant than a
well-crafted song. Bennett never performed with Billie Holiday, but
his pairing on “Body And Soul” with the late Amy Winehouse boils
with the troubled emotions that might have attended an encounter
with late-stage Holiday. Winehouse phrases with the parched cackle
of a much older and experienced voice. She is stark, astringent
and powerful.
While (the first) Duets stayed mostly inside the Bennett songbook
of hits, the sequel ventures into somewhat wider territory. Carryovers
are Michael Bublé and k.d. lang, Bennett’s most reliable studio companion,
who joins him again for a beautiful “Blue Velvet.” Another
carryover, less easily explained, is a second run at “How Do You Keep
The Music Playing,” done earlier with George Michael and here a bit
awkwardly with Aretha Franklin. It’s not her material.
The romping promise struck by Bennett and Lady Gaga at the
top is cut short as the light darkens and the music turns softly solemn
and torchy, a mood broken only by a very lightly swinging “Speak
Low” with Norah Jones, “Watch What Happens” with Natalie Cole
and a pleasantly ambling “On The Sunny Side Of the Street” with
fellow old-pro Willie Nelson. The procession of ballads relies less
on charm and wit, more on warm vocal blends that carefully build to
the stately finish. A few more pockets of energy would have complemented
the variety of the talents and permitted more of the relaxed
give-and-take of a chatty duet.
Sheryl Crow is an elegant partner on “The Man I Love,” though
the shifts between first and third person to adjust for gender might
not sit will with lyricist Ira Gershwin. As for Cole, Faith Hill, Queen
Latifah and Carrie Underwood, there’s enough of the saloon singer
in each of these ladies to make the grade with the master. The only
points where you may sense a clash of basic sensibility are with Josh
Groban and Andrea Bocelli, two great theater singers whose imperial
presence is oversized in the more intimate jazz club ambiance that
is Bennett’s natural home.
Bennett’s unique career arc may well be remembered as the only
one whose encore outshined, and maybe outlasted, its first two acts.
—John McDonough
Duets II: Lady Is A Tramp; One For My Baby; Body And Soul; Don’t Get Around Much Anymore;
Blue Velvet; How Do You Keep The Music Playing; The Man I Love; Sunny Side Of The Street;
Who Can I Turn To; Speak Low; This Is All I Ask; Watch What Happens; Stranger in Paradise; The
Way You Look Tonight; Yesterday I Heard The Rain; It Had To Be You; When Do The Bells Ring
For Me. (63:18)
Personnel: Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga (1), John Mayer (2), Amy Winehouse (3), Michael Bublé (4),
k.d. lang (5), Aretha Franklin (6), Sheryl Crow (7), Willie Nelson (8), Queen Latifah (9), Norah Jones
(10), Josh Grobin (11), Natalie Cole (12), Andrea Bocelli (13), Faith Hill (14), Alejandro Sanz (15), Carrie
Underwood (16), Mariah Carey (17), vocals; Lee Musiker, piano; Gray Sergent, guitar; Marshall
Wood, bass; Harold Jones, drums; Marion Evans (1, 2, 4, 8, 12), Jorge Calandrelli (3, 5–7, 9–11,
13–17), conductor.
Ordering info: columbiarecords.com
DECEMBER 2011 DOWNBEAT 85