Bennett and Evans

I'm not usually one to hear a song on the radio and then go out and buy the record. This week was an exception, when I heard a song from The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and subsequently ran to FYE (formerly known as Tower Records) to buy the album.
I've been a Bill Evans fan for awhile now - his mix of impressionistic harmony, rhythmic give-and-take, and Bach-like clarity of tone has been my ideal of what jazz piano should sound like. I've always been a bit skeptical of Tony Bennett - he never seemed to have Sinatra's brutal candidness and range of vocal colour or Mel Torme's sweetness of tone. Bennett, to me, had a more muscular approach, with occasional dramatic flights into Mario Lanza territory. A force to be reckoned with, but never my favourite.

This album completely blew me away. Evans, as always, is brilliant, his solos impeccably tasteful and his accompaniment sensitive and responsive. Bennett, as one Amazon reviewer put it, seems to be challenged and energized by Evans's presence. Stripped of a backing band, he finds new depth of colour and expression and his singing is at times stunningly beautiful. He saves his operatic outpourings for appropriately intense moments and gives the sometimes jumpy vocal lines a sweet legato (listen to "We'll Be Together Again" - I never realised just how much that song is all over the place melodically). I was particularly struck by Evans and Bennett's rendering of Bernstein's "Some Other Time". I have to say, I didn't really know this song before and now am loving it. Evans resurrects his familiar Satie-like introduction from "Peace Piece" and "Flamenco Sketches" while Bennett sings simply with perfectly measured portamento. It's a heartbreaker. This is a document of two mature artists supremely comfortable with their own artistry and with each other's musicality.

I've always been a fan of "guy/girl with a piano" albums. In fact, the whole reason I got into Lieder was because I heard a record of Brendel and Fischer-Dieskau doing Dichterliebe in the 9th grade - a "guy with a piano" album if I've ever heard one (I'll stop short of calling Dichterliebe proto-Emo...). I love the directness and the intimacy of it. I think this is why I like Dowland lute-songs too.
But I digress. Buy this album. Now.