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- Verified Buyer
I'm frankly flabbergasted to find this album listing no higher than #51 among Tony Bennett album sales on Amazon. It's one of the last "big production" albums--1999-- just before Sony/Columbia came to some realizations about the high costs of running a first-class operation and proceeded to back up the truck, dumping the Marsalises and a whole stableful of young jazz artists who had been discovered and nurtured by producer Branford as well as desisting from praiseworthy (but admittedly hugely expensive) projects such as the remastered, reissued "Ellington at Newport '56." Now the company has few if any jazz artists under contract and is all but indifferent to the "art" of America's music.The Bennett Ellington session receives the attention to detail not to mention the production values and large scale that one might expect of an artist (actually two) deserving V.I.P. treatment. Besides Ralph Sharon's quartet, there are noteworthy guests sitting in--the ubiquitous Wynton Marsalis, the legendary Al Grey, fiddler extraordinaire Joel Smirnoff, and an impressive collection of string players along with arrangements and orchestral direction by the likes of jazz immortal Ralph Burns. The tunes are even arranged to fit into a kind of program, or Ellington travelogue, with Tony beginning the session with just enough measures of music to invite everybody aboard the "A Train." Additionally, there are short musical transitions--four to eight bars each--between tunes (to smooth out any potential bumps in the rails? Whatever, they actually sound like false starts at best, mistakes at worst) along with features exclusively for the instruments (Wynton's solo on "Chelsea Bridge" compares favorably with my recollection of Dizzy's recording of the same tune with full orchestra). And to top it off, the timeless and redoubtable Dean of all jazz critics, Nat Hentoff, provides strong liner notes with appreciative and keen insights into both Bennett and Ellington.Still--Ellington is the most difficult of all composers for vocalists to get a handle on. Many of his tunes, in fact, were written as instrumentals, with words provided by someone else at a later date ("Never No Lament" / "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Concerto for Cootie" / "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me," "Subtle Slough" / "Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me "). Duke thought of his instrumental players (from Bubber Miley and Tricky Sam Nanton through Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams and Quentin Jackson) less as instruments than as "voices" (hence, the emphasis on mutes, plungers, and vocalized effects from his brass); conversely, he thought of the human voice as another instrument (hence, the wordless soprano voice in an early Cotton Club number like "Creole Love Call" is the predecessor of Johnny Hodges' later playing the same part). All of which is to say that Ellington's elliptical melodic intervals and difficult chromatics put vocalists to the ultimate test--as do numerous Strayhorn numbers--far more than the compositions of other songwriters.Tony sings with energy, sensitivity, life and pizzazz, but his voice is often two-dimensional. Instead of the powerful breath support required to do full justice by richly melodic tunes like "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Sophisticated Lady," he's forced to choose between his "shouting mode" ("In a Sent-Ti-Ment-Tal Mood"!--hardly seductive as belted out in this manner) and his "sotto voce" mode (he practically whispers "Sophisticated Lady," robbing the tune of its languorous melodic quality. And on "Don't Get Around" he alternates between the two modes, but not in a manner that makes the most sense. In short, the session is somewhat over-produced, over-dramatic ("Mood Indigo" is a jarring, inappropriate switch if you know the Ellington version), over-theatrical (is it really necessary for the vocalist to proclaim, as if in the throes of agony, "I don't get around much anymore"?).And of course there are other quibbles. Duke had no use for guitars, so why is one suddenly featured on practically every number (to permit Tony to sing softly and still be heard?) In short the recording makes me wish all the more that Duke and Sinatra had gotten together earlier and that Frank had sung a few more of Duke's tunes and with Duke's arrangements (even though, unlike some, I'm neither disappointed nor surprised that Ole Blue gave up on trying to record "Lush Life"--Although Sinatra "becomes" the song, if you listen to the Weltzscherz, jaded lyrics of "Lush Life," you'll be grateful Frank didn't go there). It's also tempting to play out, in the imagination, some of these incomparable songs as being sung by the "least controversial" of all singers (I have yet to meet anyone, from classical or jazz backgrounds, who is not totally and immediately captivated by the vocal quality of Johnny Hartman, with or without the presence of Coltrane). As for the strings, Duke made optimal use of Ray Nance's virtuosity, but there's little evidence he was impressed by the "Mantovani thing."Nevertheless, as previously intimated, this is an album of scale, featuring two of America's indisputable musical treasures (make that geniuses), and for the most part it's thoroughly enjoyable. "Azure" works perfectly for Tony's "sotto voce" voice, and the same can be said for Tony's belting voice when it comes to "It Don't Mean a Thing." Certainly there can be no argument about whether the album succeeds in delivering on the two-part promise implicit in its alternate, or "sub," title; "Hot and Cold." The listener can assured of being fully satisfied on both counts.I only wish there were more people to disagree with me. At least that would show that this worthy project is receiving the attention it deserves. I can think of one Bennett album that receives less attention, and for which I have a higher regard: Tony's tribute to Billie Holiday ("On Holiday"). Sharon and Bennett decide to keep it simple, pure, and minimalist, eliminating even the bass! The final result speaks for itself. It's a gem and a perpetual delight--a perfect representation of early Lady Day without sacrificing any of the qualities that make Tony Bennett such a worthy successor in a vibrant tradition of great jazz vocalists.
