In 2009, the last time I wrote about the two albums recorded by Bill Evans and Tony Bennett (The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album in 1975 and Together Again in 1976), I was rather hard on the work, viewing the albums as an overrated, operatic mess. Back then, I found the pairing to be a mismatch—two great artists unwilling or unsure how to fuse their sensitivities into a single statement. My big beef was that Tony and Evans were overcompensating to be heard, with Tony turning up the flame on every song as if on some sort of jazz audition and Evans pounding the keys to stand out behind Tony's amped-up pop-jazz articulation.
With the release of The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings on four 180-gram LPs (Concord), I had a chance to give the material a fresh listen and found myself coming to new conclusions. While this set does indeed feature artists who were seemingly unaware of each other's poetic strengths—Tony's casual extroversion and expressiveness and Evans' delicate cool and impressionistic introspection—I hear the music differently six years later.
After 10 listens, I realize I rather like that the material feels at times like a Tony Bennett album and that in other instances it's a Bill Evans work. More to the point, on most tracks, these are two great artists swinging in the emotional wind and crashing into each other at times. On other tracks, they seem like championship prize fighters going at it, trying to impress each other and trump each other's genius.
When evaluating the work, I find that it's important to factor in where these artists were at this point in their careers. The popularity of rock, soul and disco had pulled the rug out from under Tony, knocking him off the Columbia label, where he had been since 1951. He was adrift and confused, unsure what he had done wrong and uncertain why he was in such a precarious position after reaching the top. Evans, by contrast, was in his ascendancy in jazz circles but he, too, was trying to cope—with depression and addiction. As far as Tony was concerned, his lyrics on Make Someone Happy are particularly poignant in hindsight: “Fame, if you win it, comes and goes in a minute / Where's the real stuff in life to cling to?"
And that's when it dawned on me. Instead of listening to this work as a total package, it's far more interesting to weigh each song like a boxing round, scoring songs for one artist or the other. By listening to the new vinyl set this way, I found myself studying each artist's strengths and weaknesses on songs. Here's how I scored the tracks over the past few days, with the name of the winner next to each song:
The take-away for me on this revisit was a new way of listening to familiar work to reach updated conclusions. I also think it's a shame a producer didn't have the courage, vision and conviction to bring Evans together with a range of singers like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Nancy Wilson, Helen Merrill and Carmen McRae. We can only imagine how exciting those albums would have been.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings on four LPs (Concord) here. The CD version came out in 2009 and is available here.
With the release of The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings on four 180-gram LPs (Concord), I had a chance to give the material a fresh listen and found myself coming to new conclusions. While this set does indeed feature artists who were seemingly unaware of each other's poetic strengths—Tony's casual extroversion and expressiveness and Evans' delicate cool and impressionistic introspection—I hear the music differently six years later.
After 10 listens, I realize I rather like that the material feels at times like a Tony Bennett album and that in other instances it's a Bill Evans work. More to the point, on most tracks, these are two great artists swinging in the emotional wind and crashing into each other at times. On other tracks, they seem like championship prize fighters going at it, trying to impress each other and trump each other's genius.
When evaluating the work, I find that it's important to factor in where these artists were at this point in their careers. The popularity of rock, soul and disco had pulled the rug out from under Tony, knocking him off the Columbia label, where he had been since 1951. He was adrift and confused, unsure what he had done wrong and uncertain why he was in such a precarious position after reaching the top. Evans, by contrast, was in his ascendancy in jazz circles but he, too, was trying to cope—with depression and addiction. As far as Tony was concerned, his lyrics on Make Someone Happy are particularly poignant in hindsight: “Fame, if you win it, comes and goes in a minute / Where's the real stuff in life to cling to?"
And that's when it dawned on me. Instead of listening to this work as a total package, it's far more interesting to weigh each song like a boxing round, scoring songs for one artist or the other. By listening to the new vinyl set this way, I found myself studying each artist's strengths and weaknesses on songs. Here's how I scored the tracks over the past few days, with the name of the winner next to each song:
- Young and Foolish—Tony
- The Touch of Your Lips—Evans
- Some Other Time—Evans
- When in Rome—Draw
- Some Other Time—Draw
- My Foolish Heart—Evans
- Waltz for Debby—Evans
- But Beautiful—Tony
- Days of Wine and Roses—Draw
- Lucky to Be Me—Tony
- Make Someone Happy—Draw
- You're Nearer—Tony
- A Child Is Born—Tony
- The Two Lonely People—Evans
- You Don't Know What Love Is—Tony
- Maybe September—Draw
- Lonely Girl—Tony
- You Must Believe in Spring—Draw
- Who Can I Turn To?—Tony
- Dream Dancing—Draw
The take-away for me on this revisit was a new way of listening to familiar work to reach updated conclusions. I also think it's a shame a producer didn't have the courage, vision and conviction to bring Evans together with a range of singers like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Nancy Wilson, Helen Merrill and Carmen McRae. We can only imagine how exciting those albums would have been.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings on four LPs (Concord) here. The CD version came out in 2009 and is available here.
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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