Tony Bennett-Bill Evans Album, The

Bennett, Tony and Bill Evans

album cover

Jazz Vocals Unplugged, Without a Net

Even the most accomplished saloon singer can sound corny in the recording studio, where no glasses clink, no lovers swoon, and it's up to the voice to manufacture the magic that flows like whiskey in a nightclub. Among those with an appreciation for the studio's special demands is Tony Bennett. Forever associated with the enduring city song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the buoyant, big-voiced belter got past contrivance better than just about anyone. On a series of surprisingly consistent recordings for Columbia in the 1960s, Bennett melted the artifice of the studio by finding the drama within little gestures. His best recordings overflow not just with musical sophistication, but an enthusiasm for life, and a real understanding of all sorts of heartache. Bennett hugs the microphone in an up-close embrace, and his proximity draws listeners right next to him. He treats the singer's platform less like a confessional than a nice spot at the bar where you go to tell stories and nurse wounds.

This recording, the first of two meetings between Bennett and jazz pianist Bill Evans, offers the most intimate glimpse of that skill in action. It's just piano and voice, and from the opening stanza of "Young and Foolish," Bennett signals that he's not interested in the responsible American Songbook interpretation. Instead he sounds like he's wallowing in regret, an adult looking back with sadness at long-gone moments of foolishness. Evans is right there with him; as happens throughout, he elaborates on the emotional territory Bennett has described, carrying the singer's particular shade of blue into a realm of parallel heartbreak. The tempoless ballads are sometimes heroic and always sublime—this may be the all-time best reading of "But Beautiful." More unexpected are swingers like "When in Rome," which finds Bennett telling of rascally joys with a devil-may-care irreverence. The song's a little corny, no denying that. And the jiving and jousting these two do is anything but.

Genre: Vocals
Released: 1975, Fantasy
Key Tracks: "Young and Foolish," "Some Other Time," "But Beautiful," "My Foolish Heart."
Catalog Choice: Tony Bennett: The Ultimate Tony Bennett; Basie/Bennett. Bill Evans: Alone.
Next Stop: Frank Sinatra: September of My Years
After That: Sammy Davis Jr.: Sammy Davis Jr. Sings and Laurindo Almeida Plays
Book Pages: 78–79