I don't think that's true in the least bit. In that series of Songbook albums that started from Berlin-Bennett and stretched to the Kern set, he might be relying on small combo units for the most part but he's interested in changing settings. Perfect example: Day In-Day Out on Perfectly Sinatra (does this even count as a songbook, since it cobbles together the work of many different writers?). The first minute of that song is just Tony with Clayton Cameron on drums. Or on "All of You," he takes the verse at a clip and then does a gorgeous, languid version of a tune that would normally be taken at a clip. It's jarring. It's different and it works. If you have qualms with the Duets albums, that's fine. I do, too. To be fair, a couple of those Duets are actually quite lovely, like his Duet with Alejandro Sanz on "Esta Tarde Vi Llover (Yesterday I Heard The Rain)." Also, Bennett doesn't really do concept albums in the Sinatra vein. Astoria might be the exception since you can really see his mindset in picking these songs; Bennett penned the liner notes, after all. They're songs from his childhood and youth mixed with a couple of DeForrest tunes that reflect his aching sense of nostalgia. I love The Art of Romance. Fantastic album. But I don't see a concept there except that he's performing some love songs and some are enjoyable, some are wistful and some are deeply romantic. That's not necessarily a concept. Well sequenced, maybe. But a concept? Not necessarily. In fact, I'd argue that the songbooks are stronger conceptually than The Art of Romance. And in regards to the Kern album... Bennett is performing with a world class piano trio, performing with Charlap as his sole accompanist or he's backed by Charlap and Rosenes. There's variance there.
Tonight and tomorrow night MeTV airs Tony's appearances on 77 Sunset Strip from 1963. Billboard called it Tony's "Acting debut".
The show hasn't changed, but he's still going strong: Tony Bennett delivers winning set at Mohegan Sun Casino (review)
Not looked in for a while it's good to see plenty of activity and add my support for the release of any material that lies in the vault!
Yeah, a shame to go over a year with nothing. Of course, if that means another duets album, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe this will be the year johnny Mathis gets his overdue Grammy. Tony always steamrolled the competition.
Good lord - are there still copies around! I am embarrassed at how outdated it must be - it and my other Tony Bennett effort do have updated versions on my PC but I struggle to keep abreast of all the Sinatra issues that creep out around the world (alongside another dozen or so artists I also added) but it all seems irrelevant in view of the information now available on the internet. Still it keeps me out of mischief, thanks for your comment.
GOOD NEWS! For longtime Jackie Gleason fans, Time-Life is releasing a bunch of his classic (and not seen on the net for some reason) "American Scene Magazine" CBS TV show. Why posted here? Tony made a great appearance in March of 1969 which I remember watching live. Here's a link to the ad: The Jackie Gleason Show Deluxe Edition on DVD in Color from TimeLife - Time Life
Love Jackie Gleason! From his classic Capitol albums to his Tv shows and films! His biography by Jim Bacon "How sweet it is" is a treat and highly recommandable if you wanna know how to make it as a conman! He was an original! As for the TimeLife releases, usually they are very disappointing because they almost always cut out the best scenes! So happened with their releases of the great "Andy Williams Show". Very good vision and sound but his best scenes and songs were cut out!!! It was a shame. Because to really appreciate Andy (who is my second favorite singer after guess who) you have to know the things he did on TV which were amazing vocally and musically. So a great chance was missed due to TimeLife!
Yeah, that is the Bing Crosby Enterprises that shut down the biggest Crosby discussion forum, because too many people were having fun discussing Crosby with the oversight of BCE. They had hired a control freak to manage BCE.
I meant WITHOUT the oversight of BCE of course. Their manager wrote to me when I complained and said discussion of Bing needed to be structured. After that, web activity about Bing dropped to near zero. It had been extremely active.
He sounded VERY raspy and (to be honest) he is showing his age here. Hopefully it was just an "off" night.
Most likely just an off night! He gets better half way through. Often times the sound situation on those TV shows is very difficult for singers. So happened with Andy Williams when I saw him live in 2009. He gave a tremendous unforgettable performance at Royal Albert Hall. Next day he appeared on the Jools Holland TV show and his performance was very weak. Due to bad sound in the studio! They also let him stand in the wings for two hours(!) without offering him a chair. You could see that he got tired. Next day he sang a few songs in Glasgow during a book launch were he presented his autobiography and he gave us the greatest version of "This is all I ask" I can think of. All of a sudden he sounded like in the 1960's!!! It was similar with Sinatra in later years. Usually a great night was often followed by a bad night. Enjoyed Tony's performance very much!
