Tony Bennett Albums (41)
What The Critics Say
Christmas is a time for many things, but musically, the favorite always seems to be lowered standards. Too many times, bands or vocalists trot out the usual chestnuts with few acknowledgements of their usual artistic capabilities. How nice, then, to find Tony Bennett continuing to exercise his high quality control with 2008's A Swingin' Christmas, featuring the Count Basie Big Band. The excellence on display begins with the charts, which on the big-band sides come mostly from Bill Holman -- along with a beautiful arrangement on "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" from the dearly departed Frank Foster (long a linchpin for the Basie band). Holman's great accomplishment here is to treat standards -- like "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "My Favorite Things" -- as though they were ripe for the reimagining (which, of course, they are). Producer Phil Ramone balances the accompaniment well, moving from small group to big band with no speed bumps, and the basic quartet is anchored by pianist Monty Alexander (who Bennett thanks "for sitting in and playing in a Basie style"). Although Bennett's voice shows increasing signs of age here, his interpretive gifts are untouched and unimpeachable, especially when the material calls for sensitivity (the closing "O Christmas Tree," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"). ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Few vocalists have earned what Tony Bennett enjoys: the absolute authority of recording exactly what he wants, exactly the way he wants. And when recording an album of love songs, easily the most common of all conceptual works, no other singer would have the talent to capture both the edges and the subtleties to make what has been tried, many times, sound true. But this is a quality that Bennett -- never a jazz singer, always a "song" singer -- has possessed throughout his career. The Art of Romance is a record, as described by producer Phil Ramone, "that communicates with those in love, out of love and everywhere in-between." Love isn't all rosy, of course, and it's rendered in such saloon-song soft-focus by Bennett and his small group (plus light string accompaniment) that it never sounds passé -- an achievement in itself. Many of these are love songs with a crooked smile, whether it's a brief celebrity-page linking that unexpectedly turns into love ("All in Fun") or songs about the end of love, such as "Where Do You Start" and "I Remember You," a pair of evocative ballads charting love leaving and love only half-remembered. Ironically, Bennett contributes one of the most tender songs, making his debut as a composer on "All for You" with a set of lyrics to one of his favorite tunes, Django Reinhardt's gypsy-jazz classic "Nuages." Remarkably, The Art of Romance marks the debut of these 11 songs in his recorded repertoire. While a few are classics that are nearly as old as Bennett himself, many of them are rarely performed nuggets from the post-vocal era, by such composers as Johnny Mandel, Stephen Sondheim, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman. ("Time to Smile," a buoyant, inspirational piece, marks the debut of the song in anyone's recorded repertoire; it's an older composition by Johnny Mercer and Geoffrey Clarkson only discovered in 2004.) Approaching the age of 80, Tony Bennett has only a few grains in his voice and a bit of strain in the energy of his performances, nothing that a listener wouldn't be able to forgive of a man 25 years younger. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
'Life Is Beautiful'
Release Date 6/10/2003
Tracks 11
Label Concord Jazz
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What The Critics Say
Recorded for his own Improv label, Tony Bennett's Life Is Beautiful appeared the same year as his impressive jazz collaboration with Bill Evans, and represents a return to full orchestration after the quiet majesty of The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album. Anchored by the Torrie Zito Trio but also including frequent strings and brass, Bennett makes ten intriguing selections for his material; while the composers are hardly unfamiliar names (including Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Kurt Weill, and even Fred Astaire), many of Bennett's choices are fresh ones, reflecting his 25 years of investigation into the American songbook. Ellington's obscure "Reflections" is the best, given a sweetly remembered, world-weary, yet majestic performance by the incomparable Bennett. Berlin's enraptured "I Used to Be Color Blind" and Porter's swinging "Experiment" are also great versions of rare songs by top-drawer composers. Bennett's voice, however, isn't always in top condition here; he strains for a few notes, and several times attempts to power through lines that would've been improved by clever phrasing. [A 2003 reissue by Concord added a song recorded at the same time, a 12-minute "Cole Porter Medley" smoothly performed by Bennett and just as smoothly transitioned by Torrie Zito.] ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Tony Bennett has sung with k.d. lang previously, notably on his MTV Unplugged album, and the two have meshed well together, largely because of lang's willingness to sublimate herself to Bennett's approach. The same thing can be said of the two on this full-length duet album (which also contains solos -- Bennett is heard alone on "That's My Dream," lang on "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" and "That Lucky Old Sun [Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day]"). It isn't just that lang joins in on material more suitable to Bennett's style than to hers. This is an album on which the musicians are the members of Bennett's backup group (plus strings), recorded in Bennett's studio. But one never gets the sense that lang is restricted by the approach. She is sufficiently versatile, or chameleon-like, to sound like she's enjoying herself, just as she did earlier in her career when she was working with producer Owen Bradley in Nashville and singing traditional country. At 76, Bennett sings with an easy, casual style, never seeming to work very hard for his effects, and lang, in her vocal prime, deliberately complements him, though she never seems quite as comfortable. Although there is no indication other than an uncredited painting (by Bennett, of course) inside the CD booklet, this is a tribute album to Louis Armstrong, who recorded these songs over the course of his long career. That doesn't mean that there's a trumpet to be heard anywhere on the disc or that either of the singers tries to re-create any aspect of Armstrong's vocal style. It simply provides an organizing principle that the listener can notice or not. (Well, it's hard not to notice during the title song, with Bennett's references to "Satchmo" and "Pops.") Like Armstrong, Bennett and lang are trying to make the music sound effortless and unstudied, and to a large extent they succeed. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Playin' with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues'
Release Date 11/6/2001
Tracks 15
Label Sony
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What The Critics Say
Tony Bennett's latter-day albums tend to have themes, and this one has two, as indicated by its double-barreled title: It is both a duets album and a blues album. The duet partners include ten singers who range from his recent touring partners Diana Krall and k.d. lang to fellow veterans Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Kay Starr, and younger, but still mature pop stars Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, and Billy Joel. All sound happy to be sharing a mic with Bennett. Not surprisingly, the singer's conception of the blues does not extend to the Mississippi Delta or the South Side of Chicago; rather, he is interested in the blues as filtered through the sound of the Swing Era, particularly from around Kansas City, and as interpreted by Tin Pan Alley and show tunes. For the former, his true mentor is Count Basie, whose overt influence is heard on six of the 15 tracks. Bennett makes no attempt to hide this, leading off the album with two songs, "Alright, Okay, You Win" (a duet with Krall) and "Everyday (I Have the Blues)" (a duet with Wonder), closely associated with Basie singer Joe Williams. The Broadway and Hollywood blues style is introduced in three selections written by Harold Arlen. On about half the tracks, the Ralph Sharon Quartet is augmented by Harry Allen's saxophone and Mike Melvoin's Hammond organ, but this remains a small, intimate affair that emphasizes the singers. There are missteps -- Sheryl Crow's Billie Holiday impersonation on "Good Morning, Heartache" is unfortunate, and Natalie Cole, as usual, sounds out of her depth on "Stormy Weather." But the trade-offs Bennett enjoys with King and Charles are priceless, and the Joel duet is surprisingly effective. On the whole, this is yet another entry in Bennett's lengthening series of autumnal recorded triumphs. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool'
Release Date 9/28/1999
Tracks 14
Label Columbia
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What The Critics Say
Tony Bennett's practically inevitable commemoration of the Duke Ellington centenary is an appropriately blue-chip affair, with a big band and orchestra augmenting the Ralph Sharon Quartet on arrangements by Jorge Calandrelli, who has slowed the tempos to give the singer time to give intimate interpretations to the lyrics of songs like "Mood Indigo" and "Sophisticated Lady." Especially impressive are the less familiar tunes, such as "Azure" and "Day Dream." The slowest tunes also leave room for expressive solos by trombonist Al Grey and trumpeter Wynton Maralis ("Mood Indigo") and violinist Joel Smirnoff ("Sophisticated Lady"). Marsalis even gets his own tune, "Chelsea Bridge," to himself, which means, oddly, that on an album called Bennett Sings Ellington, there is a track on which Bennett does not sing and that was not written by Ellington! ("Chelsea Bridge" was composed by Ellington's partner Billy Strayhorn.) When you hear it, though, it's hard to complain. Less effective is the decision to stick short excerpts of "Take the 'A' Train" (never heard in its entirety) in between many of the tracks. But the main pleasure here is found in Bennett's vocals. In his early seventies, he probably couldn't have belted these songs if they'd been played in more demonstrative ways, but he gets a lot of out them in his breathy, conversational style. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
On his first children's album, Tony Bennett presses into service some familiar titles from The Great American Songbook, such as Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke's "Swinging on a Star," and Arlen, Billy Rose and E.Y. Harburg's "(It's Only) a Paper Moon." He also dips into his own repertoire for "Firefly," his 1958 hit. And he calls upon such partners as the Muppets' Elmo ("Little Things") and Kermit the Frog ("Bein' Green" and "Firefly"), and Rosie O'Donnell ("Put on a Happy Face"). All of that is very good, but the best parts of the collection are unexpected discoveries and commissions, such as Alan and Marilyn Bergman's newly written lyric for the Bill Evans-composed title song, Bobby Timmons and Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "Dat Dere" and Dr. Seuss' assertive declaration "Because We're Kids," with music by Frederick Hollander. The Ralph Sharon Quartet provides typically sympathetic accompaniment and a child's chorus jumps in here and there, while Bennett exudes his usual warmth, which is perfect for the mood of the album. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Bennett & Basie'
Release Date 4/11/1997
Tracks 11
Label Intercontinental
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'Here's to the Ladies'
Release Date 10/24/1995
Tracks 18
Label Columbia
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What The Critics Say
For years, it was rumored that Frank Sinatra was going to record an album called Here's to the Ladies, but the Chairman of the Board never got around to actually making the record. However, Tony Bennett did and his record covers a wider range of artists and styles than Sinatra's scheduled record. Naturally, Bennett turns in a thoroughly entertaining, professional performance. It's a solid contribution to his impressively assured and diverse comeback. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
