GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILL EVANS – Make Someone Happy

 

On his Facebook page today Tony Bennett posted a beautiful graphic with the quote: "My goal is to express truth and beauty."

Recalling jazz piano giant Bill Evans' final words to Tony – his favorite jazz singer shortly before he died. The jazz world's most influential pianist's last words to Tony:

“I wanted to tell you just one thing. Just think truth and beauty. Forget about everything else. Just concentrate on truth and beauty, and that's all.”

---

Ask his fans to list their top five favorite albums -- not just his -- and Tony's mid-seventies recordings with Bill Evans are at the top of most everyone's list. Coincidentally (or not) I awoke this sunny day singing a line from Jule Styne's best song – MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY.

 

Fame, if you win it, comes and goes in a minute

Where's the real stuff of life to cling to?

Love is the answer – someone to love is the answer

Make someone happy – just one, someone, happy

and you will be happy too!

 

Best ever rendition? No contest. Jule Styne, a fine pianist himself, said this was his favorite. Yours too?

Thanks for sharing Tony Bennett. Celebrated elsewhere [search] “ Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central “ p. 42

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gmp84bmqQw

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – Tiger Rag (“Chet Atkins cover”)

 

If I didn't know better I'd say, What a coincidence! Just yesterday, this life-long Chet Atkins fan had been recalling “the fastest picking Chet ever did” – on his early “HI FI IN FOCUS album (a monaural recording made in his basement studio, circa 1956) with TIGER RAG as the opening track. There were certain phrases – clusters of notes – that Chet played faster than . . . anyone, before or since.

 

So. Imagine my delight to find Tiger Rag the very one Doyle Dykes selected to play for us on line last night – employing a similar-sounding Gretsch 'White Falcon' instead of Chet's signature 'Country Gentleman' guitar. (Doyle owns multiples of each great instrument).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLB35BI-FgI

 

As 'covers' go, it is almost perfect! Doyle would be the first to tell you that Chet managed to slip in a few extra notes, at certain key moments (those moments when Doyle will chuckle, or say under his breath “Get in there!”). And those fast phrases Chet managed to play 'clean' without blurring of notes (See below:)

 

To appreciate what Doyle accomplishes – alone, I would say, among the greatest, finger-style virtuoso's – listen to the original. (Really, is there anything you can't find at YouTube?)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIfCBeU6dx8

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TOMMY EMMANUEL -- Bluegrass and Blue Smoke

 

Just left my "other favorite, living guitar virtuoso" a note -- re a video clip from a recent concert.  I meant to add: "Is it just me, or does Tommy get better (even faster) with age?"

1 hour ago (edited)

At around the 0:43 second mark (after what I'd call a 'micro-history' of Bluegrass picking) Tommy plays an obscure Merle Travis composition -- at first with 'flat pick' plectrum style, then finger-style with thumb pick -- BLUE SMOKE. Tommy alone, among the great finger-style virtuosos, ever plays this one --  my favorite instrumental composed by 'the father of finger-style guitar.'   I'll tell you who would have loved this: Merle himself.  I imagine him looking down in awe at this inspired medley -- barely three minutes in length.

 

And don't you love Tommy's concluding crescendo. What an ending!

 

Tommy Emmanuel explains his own success as "always wanting to surprise" his audiences with "something new" -- including things that make us laugh: As when (just after the 2:07 mark) he continues to play -- while taking his left hand away to wave "Hi!" to someone, stage right. 

 

 

William Thomas Emmanuel AM (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian guitarist (now a U.S. citizen). 

 

One of six children, Emmanuel was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia, in 1955. He received his first guitar in 1959 at age four and was taught by his mother to accompany her playing lap steel guitar. In 1961, at the age of six, he heard Chet Atkins playing on the radio. He vividly remembers that moment and said it greatly inspired him as a musician.^[4]

 

Emmanuel had said that even at a young age he was fascinated by Chet Atkins'  musical style of playing bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies simultaneously using the thumb and fingers of the right hand, achieving a dynamic range of sound from the instrument. Although Emmanuel's playing incorporates a multitude of musical influences and styles, including jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk and rock, this type of country finger-style playing is at the core of his technique.

 

While Emmanuel has never had formal music training and does not read or write music, his natural musical ability, intrinsic sense of rhythm, and charisma gained him fans from all over the world. As a solo performer, he never plays to a setlist and uses a minimum of effects onstage.^[6] He usually completes studio recordings in one take.

 

As a young man in Australia, Emmanuel wrote to his hero Chet Atkins in Nashville, Tennessee. Eventually, Atkins replied with words of encouragement and a long-standing invitation to drop by to visit. In 1997, Emmanuel and Atkins recorded as a duo, releasing the album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World. It would be Atkins's last album.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[samserv]

On 2/3/2023 at 11:58 AM, Mark Blackburn said:

JOHN PIZZARELLI  -- The Song Is You

[At around the 13:49 mark] During his 'live-stream' show last evening .... after “a bit of Matheny” – and holding up a bottle of my favorite water AQUAFINA (asking for donations to “help with my incidentals bill”) John Pizzarelli launches into the most wonderful medley of songs by the 'dean' of the Great American Songbook – Jerome Kern.

'Jerry' to his friends was no fan of jazz but I believe he'd be utterly charmed to hear what John does with some of his best in medley: After Dietz & Schwartz's “Give Me Something to Remember You By” (who doesn't love a Tango treatment that alludes at the opening to 'Snowfall'?) John shares his Kern gems sequence: “The Way You Look Tonight,” and “Look For the Silver Lining” – through to (my own favorite melodic test tune for any new guitar) THE SONG IS YOU.

Previous favorite version of that one – by Lenny Breau (on TV here in Winnipeg, circa 1969 – finally up there on YouTube in small screen black & white.) Yes, Lenny's version (with Jim Pirie and Ron Haldorson) has finally been displaced from 'top spot' in my heart. What you do on the song's bridge! A goosebump-inducing chord sequence no one else has ever played on guitar. Which is to say, The song is Yours, now.

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/5536293889815953

 

Stop the presses. Google for “New Jersey Music” to learn at Wikipedia that “New Jersey does not have a state song.” Well it damn well should – and state officials would do well to consider John Pizzarelli's “I Like New Jersey” – performed here as a series of spot-on impersonations – including Billy Holiday (and her sound-alike admirers, all identified by name). Yes, most everyone you could think of from Paul Simon, The Eagles, The Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan ending with Roy Orbison: each preceded by a familiar lick or refrain from one of their hits. I defy you to listen to this (at the 40:00 minute mark) and not laugh. Yet another reason to declare this my favorite “5 o'clock Somewhere” show.

 

Preceded at the 36:34 mark by “The Rainbow Connection” a Muppet Movie Kermit the Frog song, performed without a trace of condescension: as it should. It was 'Best Original Song' Oscar-nominated. Its Wiki entry oddly lists its 'genre' as “Bluegrass.” Odd until you remember that Kermit self-accompanied with a banjo on his knee. Never better performed than by John Pizzarelli.

 

 

 

[samserv]

I've been looking for a definitive version (with voice) of that ballad.  I'll try your recommendation.  Long ago I figured Musiker must be very good if even the great Eddie Higgins yielded to him as accompanist for Higgins' own wife Meredith d'Ambrosio.  But the best soloists among jazz pianists are not necessarily the most sensitive accompanists for jazz vocalists, though Bill Evans, for the most part, succeeds on his two albums with Tony Bennett (voice and piano, no other instruments).  I recall that Mel Torme, even after working extensively with Shearing, took special joy in having Mike Renzi on board ("None better," he would frequently say about Mike).  I've noticed on Jack Jones' own interpretations of Tony Bennett chestnuts (on "J. J. Paints a Tribute to T. B.") that his voice has dropped by a third and is not only more baritone than tenor but more rough than smooth.  Nevertheless, for the first time he becomes a full-fledged "jazz singer," with phrasing that can take a listener's breath away, as on Johnny Mandel's transcendent piece about the power of memory.  The following lines occupy almost 4 measures, which the vocalist handles in a single breath:  "Now when I remember spring / And all the joy that love can bring / I will be remembering" [Beautiful, Jack!. Come up for air now, and state the title of perhaps the most memorable, emotion-packed reading the song has received.]  The reason for this inspired performance of a song Jack had previously recorded (as a tenor)?  I'm convinced it's Mike Renzi's prodding yet unobtrusive accompaniment, including an improvised piano chorus on which every note has a purpose.  A few years later Renzi would move on to serve as Tony's accompanist (joining Gary Sargent, gtr, and Harold Jones, perc). I first heard Tony in concert in 1964--pleasant but hardly gripping. 2015 was a different story. The crowd at Milwaukee's Riverside Theater was simply enthralled.  Now in his late '80s, Tony finally waved off his musicians and filled the deep and high space with "Fly Me to the Moon," a singing the entire lyric  "a cappella."  When the applause stopped, Tony made a curious statement: "You see, I sing jazz."  20 years ago such an explanation would have seemed gratuitous.  But to this audience, comprising under-55 year olds, it seemed to come as a revelation. Without elaborating, Tony launched his finale, "The Good Life," which is not only one of the best songs written after 1960 but the title of Tony's autobiography.  Following this experience, I was too overcome by emotion to speak--even to my wife, who wondered if I was angry or depressed.  After half an hour I had assembled myself sufficiently to suggest that the concert was on the same level as any of the six Sinatra concerts we had attended together.  I only wish the event had been recorded.  I find Sinatra's "Live at the Sands," which is the only concert date released during his lifetime, a nice reminder but somewhat lacking in musical values.  The closest thing to a late-career triumph on record, akin to Tony Bennett in Milwaukee, is Sarah Vaughan's 2-disc monster performance, "In the City of Lights" (Paris, 1985).  Less than 5 years before her passing, Sassy sounds better than ever, using for motivation her receptive audience and her accompanist, Frank Collett (her alter ego, or her most supportive pianist since the great Jimmy Jones).  Sadly, both Renzi and Collett have passed.  R.I.P. Mike and Frank, and thank you.

 

[Mark Blackburn]

 

JAMES TAYLOR – his award-winning jazz vocal:  'Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight'

 

On his Facebook page today James Taylor shared with us a favorite 'live' concert version of 'Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight' (1979). Or as I like to call it – my “other favorite jazz standard of the 1970s” along with Billy Joel's 'Just The Way You Are' – both songs featuring brilliant sax solos.

 

In my favorite of his teaching videos for guitarists, James uses cameras attached to the body of his favorite instrument (see below) to share key sequences of what he himself dubs the song that brought him into the new category of “folk/jazz.”

 

Coincidentally (or not) I'd just been re-reading a 'review' by my namesake “4 years ago” about my own favorite version – James with an all-star cast of jazz musicians, recorded in 2002 as a 'return favor' to sax giant Michael Brecker, whose iconic solo was featured on James Taylor's original recording of 30 years earlier (for his 'One Man Dog' black vinyl LP).

 

James' recapitulation for Michael's 'Nearness of You' album won James the Grammy for “Best Male Pop Vocal” – as well as one of 15 Grammy awards Michael Brecker picked up in an all-too-short but utterly brilliant career: only 57 when he left us in 2007.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOOZ1PlTkPY

 

Wikipedia

 

"Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter James Taylor, from his 1972 album One Man Dog. The song has been included on three of Taylor's greatest-hits collection albums: Greatest Hits (1976), Classic Songs (1987) and The Best of James Taylor (2003). Taylor re-recorded the song for the 2001 Michael Brecker album Nearness of You: The Ballad Book; this rendition won Taylor the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2002.

 

James' own YouTube video -- making those beautiful chord sequences look easy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV5JfELpibs&t=1s

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

MCCARTNEY – Kisses on the Bottom

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place except you and me, and Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Paul McCartney.  From his KISSES ON THE BOTTOM album of a decade ago, channel 70 has been playing at least one track per day; the latest is the title track, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (“a lotta kisses on the bottom, I'll be glad I got 'em”). With my favorite guitarist / jazz singer John Pizzarelli playing rhythm. Like vintage guitars and violins, this album just improves with age, you may agree. Some of these tracks are my 'all-time favorite' versions – case in point. This won a Grammy for best music video. But you knew that.

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

 

 

TONY BENNETT – The Best is Yet to Come

 

Just watching a 'live' performance by Tony Bennett (“at the 'i-tunes' festival in London, in 2010”) of THE BEST IS YET TO COME – a song whose title words (from my favorite female lyricist Carolyn Leigh) were the very ones Frank Sinatra wanted inscribed on his gravestone.

Tony would have been 83 then – the same year he performed at our thousand-seat concert hall in Winnipeg; I caught up with him after the show at his hotel – in time to declare:

 

“Mr. Bennett, that wasn't merely the best performance by an 83-year-old – that was the greatest performance by anyone that I have ever seen.”

 

We conversed for a few minutes as he inscribed my copy of his book 'The Good Life' (1998).

I was just reminded by a dear friend and professional musician in Wisconsin of just how affecting Tony's latter-day performances could be: Samuel Chell – a retired English prof and professional jazz pianist – recalled a more recent performance:

 

I first heard Tony in concert in 1964 – pleasant but hardly gripping. 2015 was a different story. The crowd at Milwaukee's Riverside Theater was simply enthralled.  Now in his late '80s, Tony finally waved off his musicians and filled the deep and high space with "Fly Me to the Moon," a singing the entire lyric  "a cappella."  When the applause stopped, Tony made a curious statement: "You see, I sing jazz."  

20 years ago such an explanation would have seemed gratuitous.  But to this audience, comprising under-55 year olds, it seemed to come as a revelation. Without elaborating, Tony launched his finale, "The Good Life," which is not only one of the best songs written after 1960 but the title of Tony's autobiography.  

Following this experience, I was too overcome by emotion to speak--even to my wife, who wondered if I was angry or depressed.  After half an hour I had assembled myself sufficiently to suggest that the concert was on the same level as any of the six Sinatra concerts we had attended together.  I only wish the event had been recorded.

 

A well-recorded video we could only hope! – like this performance, in London 2010: The same great musicians including Lee Musiker, piano, Gray Sargent, guitar and Harold Jones percussion.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmRmgysMngY

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / RAY CHARLES – Evenin'

 

Evenin' . . . ev'ry night you come, and you find me

Must you always come and remind me?

That my gal is gone . . .

 

A Cab Calloway song from 90 years ago composed by “Harry White” whose brief Wiki entry reminds us that he was an “accomplished trombone player who worked with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.” White asked Mitchell (“Stardust”) Parish to write words to fit his simple blues tune, titled EVENIN'.

 

Tony Bennett and Ray Charles decided to give it new life on Tony's 2001 album of terrific duets: “Playin' With My Friends – Bennett Sings The Blues.”

 

In the silence at song's end (obviously pleased with their results) Ray says, with a smile you can hear: “Okay, Uncle Tony?”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cOTmh9dNbs&t=13s

 

Wikipedia

 

Playin' with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues is a 2001 album by Tony Bennett featuring duets with notable vocalists.

 

TRACK LISTING

1. "Alright, Okay, You Win" (Mayme Watts, Sidney Wyche) – 3:31 (duet with Diana Krall)
2. "Everyday (I Have the Blues)" (Peter Chatman) – 3:38 (duet with Stevie Wonder)
3. "Don't Cry Baby" (Saul Bernie, James P. Johnson, Stella Unger) – 2:43
4. "Good Morning Heartache" (Ervin Drake, Dan Fisher, Irene Higginbotham) – 4:56 (duet with Sheryl Crow)
5. "Let the Good Times Roll" (Fleecie Moore, Lovin' Sam Theard) – 3:14 (duet with B.B. King)
6. "Evenin'" (Mitchell Parish, Harry White) – 4:14 (duet with Ray Charles)
7. "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler) – 3:55 (duet with Bonnie Raitt)
8. "Keep the Faith, Baby" (Luchi de Jesus, Lila Lerner, Watts) – 3:51 (duet with k.d. lang)
9. "Old Count Basie Is Gone (Old Piney Brown Is Gone)" (Joe Turner) – 3:24
10. "Blue and Sentimental" (Count Basie, Mack David, Jerry Livingston) – 3:20 (duet with Kay Starr)
11. "New York State of Mind" (Billy Joel) – 4:30 (duet with Billy Joel)
12. "Undecided Blues" (Jimmy Rushing) – 3:17
13. "Blues in the Night" (Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 3:33
14. "Stormy Weather" (Arlen, Koehler) – 4:34 (duet with Natalie Cole)
15. "Playin' with My Friends" (Robert Cray, Dennis Walker) – 4:47

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI – "Maybe I'm Amazed" (to be) "Swinging on a Star"

In the space of a few minutes, on his most recent live streamed “It's 5 o'clock Somewhere” show, John Pizzarelli celebrated “Paul McCartney's birthday” with two of his own favorites composed words & tune by Paul: “And I Love Her” at around the 13:55 mark, and (from Paul's first post-Beatles solo album) “Maybe I'm a Man” ( 10:20 ).

Followed immediately by the best solo jazz guitar rendition ever (says me) of Jimmy Van Heusen's first (of four) 'Best Original Song' Oscar winners: (You could be) "Swinging on a Star" ( at the 16:25 mark).

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/983427529360891

----

Shared by John Pizzarelli at YouTube -- from his 'Midnight McCartney' album

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – It Was Me

 

“What is your favorite summer song?” asks Tony Bennett's Facebook page this day. Happy to say (without hesitation) it's one by Tony himself from long ago 1963: IT WAS ME. With a melody by French composer Gilbert Becaud and English lyric by Norman Gimbel.

Too obscure to be mentioned in Becaud's Wikipedia entry which focused on two other melodies of his that became major hits: 'What Now My Love?' And 'Let It Be Me.'

Wiki says Gilbert Becaud was 74 when he died of cancer in 2001 “on his houseboat in Paris.”

Google to learn that Tony Bennett himself declared that IT WAS ME was his own “favorite summer song.”

I see my namesake reviewed this one “3 years ago” with notes about the prolific lyricist whose poignant lyric was included (below) at “The Tony Bennett Interactive Discography”.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc376NcoISg&t=4s

 

 

“It Was Me” was written by Gilbert Becaud as “C’etait Moi,” with English lyrics by Norman Gimbel. It’s a beautiful love song that brings memories of summers past and, maybe, to come. In 2009, Tony Bennett named this as his favorite summer song on NPR; you can listen to the interview here.

----

Who’s the one you would find on the beach every day
Lying there on the shore while his friends swim away
Lying there in the sand only inches from you
Watching you every day til the summer was through
It was me

Who would help gather shells for the bracelet you made
Who would find you the cups for the pink lemonade
Who was always beside you whenever you’d swim
When you sat by the sea as the daylight grew dim
It was me
It was me

Now that summer is gone
And the warm skies are cold
And the soft winds are crisp
With their wintery chill
Do you ever think back on the night when we kissed
Can you ever forget
I know I never will

Who’s the one next to you in the group photograph
Who’s the one with the face too unhappy to laugh
Standing there looking down so uncertain and shy
Like a boy who’s in love, so in love he could cry
It was me
It was me
Me finding out
It was you

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA / RIDDLE – This Nearly Was Mine

 

Playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra – some people's favorite track on the singer's own favorite album, “The Concert Sinatra”: From South Pacific, Rodgers & Hammerstein's THIS NEARLY WAS MINE.

Frank Sinatra Jr said there were “80 plus” musicians in the symphony orchestra that night in 1963. He knew that, because he was present – “getting goosebumps” at what his father achieved – there on the Goldwyn sound stage – the largest in Hollywood history.

Nelson Riddle said that these were his finest arrangements, and that he never saw the singer “more focused” than for these recordings.

Each time I hear the opening orchestral flourish for this one, I think the same thing: Will it still give me goosebumps? Never fails! You too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2etEOUCF16A

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILL CHARLAP – Nobody Else But Me

 

"When I am with her, I'm glad the boy who's with her, is nobody else but me!"

 

When he was about to turn 90, Tony Bennett recorded with another great jazz pianist (my favorite among those I've seen in 'live' performance here in Winnipeg) -- Bill Charlap – for their Grammy-winning album of Jerome Kern favorites titled “The Silver Lining.” 

It's midnight and just for me, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Tony & Bill's terrific version of NOBODY ELSE BUT ME --  described at Wikipedia as “the last song Jerome Kern ever wrote” (note below). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDzQKwz0f8&t=1s

 

Wikipedia:

"Nobody Else but Me", sometimes called "Nobody Else but You", is a 1946 song composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for the 1946 Broadway revival of the musical Show Boat when it was introduced by Jan Clayton as the character Magnolia.[1] This was the last song written by Kern; he died shortly before the 1946 production opened.[2]

 

Vocal recordings

• 1946 Jan Clayton in the Show Boat cast album.[3]

• 1957 Barbara Lea – for her album Barbara Lea With the Johnny Windhurst Quartet.[4]

• 1959 Mitzi Gaynor – for her album Mitzi[5]

• 1959 Peggy King – for her album Lazy Afternoon[6]

• 1961 Ruth Price – for her album Ruth Price with Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole.

• 1963 Sarah Vaughan – for her album The Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan.

• 1964 Tony Bennett – included in his album When Lights Are Low.

• 1965 Dinah Shore – for her album Lower Basin Street Revisited.[7]

• 1995 Mel Tormé – for the album Velvet & Brass.

• 2001 Kristin Chenoweth – for her album Let Yourself Go.

• 2003 Tina May – for her album I'll Take Romance[8]

• 2007 Annette Sanders with Bob Florence – for their album You Will Be My Music.[9]

• 2015 Tony Bennett – for the album The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern.

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA / PIZZARELLI – The Way You Look Tonight

 

On his latest live-streamed “It's 5 o'clock Somewhere” show John Pizzarelli included (at the 45:30 mark) JUST THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT – a gorgeous guitar arrangement uniquely his, that references the classic Nelson Riddle chart for Frank Sinatra's definitive recording: same one Frank employed decades later on Michelob beer commercials – contributing no doubt to this now being the most visited Sinatra offering at YouTube (the video below just turned 70 million “views”).

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/226724719827365

 

A 'Best Original Song' Oscar-winner (1936) for Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields – the lady whose perfect lyric included instructions on the original sheet music – the notes that are to be hummed near the close:

 

“Mm-mm, Mm-mm . . .  

Just the way you look tonight.”

 

The key of D sounds wonderful on guitar – more reflective than any other (to my ears) and it's a delight to hear John opening in D – then after a host of beautiful chord progressions – which as always he manages to make look easy! – a final, upward modulation into E-flat – the song's original key. That closing flurry of chords is simply perfect, you may agree!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ZGKALMMuc

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing Swingstar Records. Celebrated elsewhere at [search] “ Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central ”

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILL CHARLAP – The Way You Look Tonight

 

On an August night in 2015 Tony Bennett and my favorite living jazz pianist Bill Charlap – alone together on a New York stage – delivered my favorite 'live' performance of this great old love song.

Sent my way by the intuitive genius that is YouTube circa 2023: As if to say, “Your other favorite version, right?” Just so.

Bill Charlap has a unique style that I love, and manages to be true to his own tasteful self, even as he 'channels' Bill Evans – the way his life-long piano hero might have played this solo had Tony included this one on their landmark “Bennett/Evans” recordings of half a century ago.

Which is to say: I don't think you can improve on this – do you?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb9awS1RRL4

 

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILL EVANS – Lucky to be Me / Some Other Time

 

In 1977 Tony Bennett and Bill Evans had just recorded their second 'alone together' album TOGETHER AGAIN when a Canadian television station (CBC Vancouver) offered them an opportunity to promote their latest work: They jumped at the chance, and had a blast doing it – recording seven songs in the space of 28 minutes. No second takes required!

 

If you've never seen this before, you're in for a treat. If you only have time to watch one or two right now, please start at the 1:28 mark – LUCKY TO BE ME. One of two songs they did here from a WWII (1944) Broadway show, “On The Town” – with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Tony and Bill perform the other great song from that same WWII show – (We'll Catch Up) Some Other Time --  at around the 11:16 mark. Jazz singing on television never got better than this, you may agree!

 

Shared by someone who may have been 'present at the creation' (with access to the original video tapes). Posted to YouTube seven years ago, nearing 200K “views” and dozens of informed comments including this one:

 

@ThomasEDavis (8 months ago)

 

“This is sublime: two brilliant musical masters in exquisitely intimate and deeply moving conversation. But these seven songs are just a sampling of an endlessly delightful collection entitled 'The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings' – a two-CDset that all lovers of jazz, piano, and the Great American Songbook should own: It contains 21 songs and 20 additional alternate takes.”

 

Thanks for sharing James Kauffman. Celebrated elsewhere [search] “Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central ”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LIW7q_cFeA

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – Wave

 

Until this minute, I'd never even heard-of Tony Bennett's 1971 black vinyl album titled “Get Happy – with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.” I have a fellow fan “Robin Hampton” (below) to thank for this informed comment at Tony's Facebook page:

 

For me, his rendition of "Wave" from the 1971 live album "Get Happy," with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is the most soulful and deep interpretation ever. I melt when I listen to it. The entire album is stunning.

 

The simple truth!  Permit an aside: If I had to single out just one favorite Sinatra recording of a Brazilian jazz samba classic (composed words & tune by Antonio Carlos Jobim) it would be WAVE: For 25 years Frank's version, arranged by Brazil's Eumir Deodato, has been my definitive favorite: not least for Sinatra hitting the lowest note of his career – an E-flat at the end of each stanza of the chorus. But again, I have “Robin Hampton” to thank for his guidance to my new, “all-time favorite” rendition.

 

Tony slows it right down, so the wave is of another 'type' – more luxuriant – and you can almost feel it flowing sensually over your feet as it retreats across the sand of a wide beach. Great jazz singer that he is, Tony's final notes – to the delight of his audience – comprise a complex jazz chord – delivered as a quick chromatic display. And you realize Tony is the only singer who could conceive it, spontaneously and deliver it in 'live' performance.

Really, isn't this wonderful?

[Best version at YouTube:]

 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – After You've Gone

 

A song that filled Chet Atkins' heart with joy. You can hear it in Chet's latter-day 'duet' with Suzy Bogguss (one of my favorites of his recordings). If you can spare only two minutes, listen to what Doyle Dykes does with this great old standard, AFTER YOU'VE GONE.

 

Playing a brand new, Quebec-made, GODIN steel-string acoustic-electric (with his own pickup of preference) Doyle makes it look so easy! A deceptively simple arrangement that includes some devilishly difficult phrases to play – at least as cleanly as Doyle does it – at the most difficult clusters of notes -- when he urges his fingers to “Get in there!”

 

My new favorite arrangement of a century-old song whose Wiki entry reminds us

 

”It was first recorded by Marion Harris on July 22, 1918, and released by Victor Records. The song became so popular that the sheet music was later decorated with tiny photographs of the 45 men who made the song famous, including Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallée, B.A. Rolfe, Guy Lombardo, and Louis Armstrong.”

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA+ Quincy's "best-ever big band" – After You've Gone

 

After posting that solo guitar rendition of AFTER YOU'VE GONE by Doyle Dykes, the intuitive genius of YouTube sent me another video, as if to say 'Isn't THIS your all-time favorite version of that song?' Yes indeed. And this share is the best version at YouTube, featuring as it does, words of introduction from producer/engineer Phil Ramone and Frank's favorite big band arranger/conductor Quincy Jones – who credits arranger Frank Foster for this chart, and singles out a young George Benson for his contribution to this 'live' in-studio recording for Sinatra's (1984) L.A. IS MY LADY album. Says Quincy:

 

“George Benson is the culmination of probably every great guitarist we have ever had from Charlie Christian to Wes Montgomery …. plus his own personality: George reaches back and embraces the best of the tradition of all of the old guitar greats ”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvO76yjtkYY

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / Robert Farnon w. London Symphony

 

My father had a life-long friendship with Robert Farnon, the Canadian-born arranger who spent most of his life in London – in recording studios, conducting London Philharmonic / Symphony musicians (which is to say among the very best). Every great arranger acknowledged Robert Farnon's influence. Tony Bennett said “Canadians should raise a statue" in his honor. Sinatra dubbed him “The Guv'nor” and Andre Previn told Johnny Mercer that “Robert Farnon is the greatest string arranger in the world.”

 

So. Imagine my delight at what Siriusly Sinatra is playing right this minute, in the middle of a day devoted (almost) entirely to Tony Bennett: COUNTRY GIRL – composed by Robert Farnon. Informed comments below the video include this one from EDC3743

 

Farnon was inspired to write *Country Girl* by William Wordsworth's poem of 1805, “The Solitary Reaper”. The verses of which are: 1 - Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass! . . .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AusNBSX3WEw

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / STEVIE WONDER – For Once in My Life

Tony's all-time favorite duet with another male singer? He never allowed himself any intimations of   preferences, but my personal guess would be his Grammy-winning 'live' performance with Stevie Wonder – someone with vocal power to match his own, and who can sing 'chromatic display' chords as effortlessly as he plays the same notes on harmonica. Breathtaking is the word for his solo (at around the 2:01 mark). Love those spoken words of 'mutual appreciation' at song's end.

 

TONY: Stevie …. wonderful!

STEVIE: The great Tony Bennett! Happy Birthday.

 

The only such video I can find of this 'live' performance is this one – uploaded to Vimeo “five years ago” with “subtitulos” by “Bossa Nova Clube”.

 

Thanks for sharing. Celebrated elsewhere this 97^th birthday [search] “ Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central ”

 

https://vimeo.com/266302839

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

WILLIE NELSON – All the Things You Are

 

My Mom and Dad's favorite song (mine too) is Kern & Hammerstein's masterpiece ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE – new versions of which (meaning ones I've never seen) keep reaching my appreciative ears in YouTube postings by 'artists various' including, just a month ago, Willie Nelson's performance (with a full orchestra yet!) on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, circa “mid-to-late 90's” according to the informed comments below from kindred spirits.

 

Tux Guys (1 year ago)

(Going by Leno's hair, this must have been in the mid-late '90's.) Knockout. Being a great songwriter himself, Willie knows what goes into a great song, and knows how to handle one by someone else, in this case Jerome Kern's compositional masterpiece. His declamatory style, with its conversational phrasing, is absolutely perfect for Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics, and the tune itself, modulating, as it does, through three different, distant keys? With Willie Nelson's ears... No problem.

 

Jazz4Ashahel

Not a trick to be found here. The man stands there and honors the tune. Solid musicianship, straightforward rendition of a beautifully crafted tune. This one makes a tear fall, because it is so true and right. The crowd goes wild, too.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qhlmheb4ak&lc=Ugx_8KlmGFdCfdeNHj54AaABAg.8bLSmxXk9hm9qsjUnjNzcA

 

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI / GEORGE BENSON – Love Dance

 

“When morning finds us caught in Life's most sensible trance: Turn up the quiet.  Love wants to dance ....”

 

In a '5 o'clock Somewhere' live-stream show – with more than a few highlights – at around the 42:00 mark John Pizzarelli included a great love song you may never have heard before: “Love Dance – by Ivan Lins,” said John, at song's end; I wanted to shout aloud, 'Don't forget who wrote the brilliant lyric!'

 

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/303938885331117/

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDozMDM5Mzg4ODUzMzExMTdfMjU0MDU1OTQ3NDE0MDEy

Permit an aside please. Four years ago at YouTube I wrote an appreciation for a George Benson video of what I called “my favorite love song of the 80's.” I had noted elsewhere that Quincy Jones asked Oscar-winning lyricist Paul Williams to mate “some perfect English words” with that hauntingly beautiful melody from Quincy's friend – Brazilian composer Ivan Lins (still with us at age 78).

 

George Benson included the resulting gem on his 'Give Me The Night' black vinyl LP – the first album anyone had recorded for Quincy's then-new “Quest” record label. The title track was the album's hit song getting lots of airplay; “Love Dance” not so much.

 

Just recently I'd been hoping my favorite jazz singer / guitarist would sing and play this one on his show – given that John previously performed Paul Williams' Oscar-nominated “Rainbow Connection” – for Kermit the Frog and The Muppets. Paul Williams' words for Barbra Streisand's “Evergreen” picked up both the “Best Original Song” Academy Award, and “Song of the Year” Grammy.

----

P.S. On his original 1980 recording of 'Love Dance' Benson stuck to singing; the lovely acoustic guitar accompaniment was provided by George's good friend Lee Ritenour.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-t8LqL1q-A

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – I'll Be Seeing You

 

I have two favorite versions of this great old song – maybe the most poignant ever written about the loss of a loved one – I'LL BE SEEING YOU. Best rendition with a full orchestra? Sinatra's --  recorded in 1962 for his very last album for Capitol Records “Point of No Return.” But then there's this one -- more simple and even more affecting: Tony Bennett, alone together with his great piano accompanist Ralph Sharon on Tony's “Perfectly Frank” Sinatra tribute album of 31 years ago;  joined by bass player Paul Langosh and drummer Joe LaBarbera.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHL8LApVRe0

 

 

If like me you were wondering . . . “Where is Tony Bennett buried?”

Google to learn (finally) from this note of “2 days ago”:

 

Tony Bennett is buried under his true name, Anthony Benedetto, with his family, in Calvary Cemetery in Woodside. A recent burial was evident when the Queens Chronicle visited the Benedetto family gravesite on Aug. 9 .... ”

 

Wikipedia

Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Maspeth and Woodside, Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. With about three million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States. Wikipedia

Address: 49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd, Queens, NY 11377, United States

Hours: 

Open ⋅ Closes 4:30 p.m.

Phone: +1 718-786-8000

Find a Grave: 64107

No. of interments: ≈ 3 million

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / LADY GAGA – Dream Dancing

 

At this moment Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Tony's last great duet – with Lady Gaga on one of Cole Porter's most beautiful melodies – DREAM DANCING: Posted to YouTube “1 year ago” and my favorite of their videos for reasons I can't put into words. But I see my namesake 'reviewed' this one, noting that “it's a lesser-known Cole Porter tune which ….

 

“ …. Tony performed definitively 44 years ago, for his second 'alone-together' album with jazz piano giant Bill Evans. (A bonus track on their “Together Again” album of 1977 but not released on any CD until 2009.) It's a rangy song. And apart from Sinatra, no male singer has ever had as great a vocal range as Tony. Incredibly, he's still got the range, together with perfect intonation!

 

A musical video so good it gives me those 'tears of joy.' You too? Barely two minutes, including Lady Gaga's entry to the studio and a loving greeting for her musical hero. Thanks for sharing Lady Gaga.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZu1ZBIsaQw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LIW7q_cFeA

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Mark Blackburn