Year: Reissued in 2004 - Originally Released in 1973 - 1977
Record Label: Concord
Style: Jazz Vocals
Musicians: Tony Bennett (vocals); Ruby Braff, Jimmy McPartland (cornet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Herb Hall (clarinet); Spider Martin, Buddy Tate (saxophone); Bill Evans, Marian McPartland (piano); Torrie Zito (piano, conductor, musical director); George Barnes, Wayne Wright, Charlie Byrd (guitar); John Giuffrida, Brian Torff (bass); Chuck Hughes, George Reed, Joe Cocuzzo (drums)
Review: There was a period in the mid-1970’s when Tony Bennett, disillusioned with a change of management at Columbia Records, struck out with a business partner to start his own record company, Improv Records. The venture was lasted only two years. However, Bennett was freed to produce the kinds of recordings that he craved after rejecting Columbia’s demands that he adapt to the popularity of pop music by performing sometimes ephemeral songs that the likes of Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis were forced to sing, even though such pursuits led those singers away from the music that made them successful. When one last insult arrived from Columbia, Bennett didn’t renew his contract. Even though Improv Records documented some of Bennett’s most highly praised albums and aligned him with respected jazz artists of compatible musical visions, a few of them attained cult status due to their lack of availability resulting from insufficient retail distribution. Now, Concord Records has corrected that problem by releasing The Complete Improv Recordings. And by “complete,” Concord does mean complete, for the four-CD set includes alternate takes, leading to an appreciation of Bennett’s determination to get the music just right to conform to his artistic intentions.
Now, Bennett continues to be popular and respected by multiple generations, and he keeps singing music his way after the resisted the pressures of the Columbia producers. His authenticity—evident from the start of his career in 1950 and now widely praised—not to mention his joy in singing, remains intact in part due to his demand for artistic control in the 1970’s.
The ten albums that appeared on the Improv Records label are condensed into four disks that represent four phases of Bennett’s recordings during those two years: orchestral work with musical director Torrie Zito, singing with the Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet, the duo sessions with Bill Evans and live recordings with Jimmy and Marian McPartland’s group.
Zito, Bennett’s pianist and musical director throughout most of the 1970’s, set up the lushness and harmonic underpinnings for Bennett’s album, Life Is Beautiful, whose title track was written by Bennett’s neighbor at the time, Fred Astaire. With force, swing and right-on pitch, and still with attention to the lyrical themes of the songs, Bennett, like other singers before a supporting orchestra, distills the music—the melody, the emotion, the phrasing, the accompaniment—through his own voice for a comprehensive effect.
Then, in a complete change of pace, Bennett recorded with Ruby Braff and George Barnes’ quartet after Braff substituted for Bennett’s friend, Bobby Hackett. When Barnes’ duo guitar sessions evolved into the quartet with Braff, Bennett was taken by the ease with which he could sing with them, everything falling into place. Without a drummer, the group relied on their mutual feel for the music, interplay and give and take more important than improvising over a beat. The singer and quartet dedicated two albums to the music of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, two of the very few that Bennett dedicated to one composer from mid-century to present. Braff’s effortlessness in decorating Bennett’s phrasing with declarative harmonic lines and his fresh and accessible solos indeed were well suited to the singer’s easy swing.
The live album with the McPartlands’ band, including legendary musicians like Buddy Tate and Charlie Byrd, took place in The Downtown Club of the Buffalo Hilton, Bennett’s business partner’s, Bill Hassett’s, hotel. With a combination of musicians’ camaraderie, traditional jazz, anything-goes repertoire, audience excitement and yet harmonic sophistication, the fourth CD reissuing Tony Bennett: The McPartlands And Friends Make Magnificent Music, is the loosest of the Concord package, and possibly the most fun. It appears that everyone has a good time, with plenty of opportunities for breaking out into solos. Even Bennett’s signature song, “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” lasts less than two minutes, not as a definitive statement of the song, but as an audience rouser for the final applause of the evening.
Bennett’s duo session with Bill Evans, the follow-up to their Fantasy release The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, remains nineteenth among a cross-section of professional jazz singers as the “all-time favorite jazz vocal recordings,” according to a recent issue of Down Beat. Not only does the Improv Records album, Tony Bennett & Bill Evans Together Again, document one of jazz’s most intriguing, mutually inspiring albums, just four years before Evans’ death, but also it includes hallmarks of creativity and surprise. For instance, Bennett opens the vocal album with a piano solo on “The Bad And The Beautiful,” teasing his listeners in anticipation of the voice that doesn’t come in and setting the stage for a recording that values the accompanist on an equal basis with the singer. As ebullient as Bennett’s singing may be, Evans’ solos attract attention for their gossamer, inimitable style, which already was evident on the same songs in several preceding Evans albums.
Will Friedwald’s comprehensive and gracefully written liner notes, from the jazz vocals expert who collaborated with Bennett on his biography, detail the events of Bennett’s life during these important years in his career when the challenges of producing his own music led the singer to even greater levels of creativity. In the meantime, Tony Bennett left the legacy of those Improv Records recordings which secured his place as one of the most admired and well-liked of male jazz singers, one who followed his own muse, avoiding the inimical techniques required for singing pop for which he wasn’t suited as well as those for scatting scatting and other jazz vocalizing. Throughout half a century, Anthony Benedetto has remained his own man, and thus none other than Tony Bennett.
Tracks: Disk 1: Life Is Beautiful, All Mine, Bridges, Reflections, Experiment, This Funny World, As Time Goes By, I Used To Be Color Blind, Lost In The Stars, There’ll Be Some Changes Made, What Is This Thing called Love, Love For Sale, You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, Easy To Love, It’s Alright With Me, Night And Day, Dream Dancing, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Get Out Of Town, What Is This Thing Called Love (Reprise), There’s Always Tomorrow, One, Mr. Magic
Disk 2: This Can’t Be Love, Blue Moon, The Lady Is A Tramp, Lover, Manhattan, Spring Is Here, Have You Met Miss Jones, Isn’t It Romantic, Wait Till You See Her, I Could Write A Book, Thou Swell, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, There’s A Small Hotel, I’ve Got Five Dollars, You Took Advantage Of Me, I Wish I Were In Love Again, This Funny World, My Heart Stood Still, My Romance, Mountain Greenery, This Can’t Be Love (alternate take #1), I Could Write A Book (alternate take #2), Thou Swell (alternate take #1), The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (alternate take #4), I Wish I Were In Love Again (alternate take #1), This Funny World (alternate take #3)
Disk 3: The Bad And The Beautiful, Lucky To Be Me, Make Someone Happy, You’re Nearer, A Child Is Born, The Two Lonely People, You Don’t Know What Love Is, Maybe September, Lonely Girl, You Must Believe In Spring, Who Can I Turn To, Dream Dancing, The Bad And The Beautiful (alternate takes #1 & #2), Make Someone Happy (alternate take #5), You’re Nearer (alternate take #9), A Child Is Born (alternate takes #2 & #7), The Two Lonely People (alternate take #5), You Don’t Know What Love Is (alternate takes #16 & 18)
Disk 4: Maybe September (alternate takes #5 & #8), Lonely Girl (alternate take #1), You Must Believe In Spring (alternate takes #1 & #4), Who Can I Turn To (alternate take #6), WatchWhat Happens, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Stomping At The Savoy, While We’re Young, In A Mellow Tone, It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, Let’s Do It, ‘S Wonderful, I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Record Label Website: http://www.concordrecords.com
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Reviewed by:
Don Williamson
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