“Something about the way, he moves me…”
What is it about Tony Bennett, that he knows how to bring out the best in women? He did some fantastic material with kd lang, and who can forget “Body and Soul” with him and Amy Winehouse? Did anyone EVER gaze into the future and figure that Bennett could make it work with Lady Gaga? And who know that she had a great voice for this kind of material?
If you knew nothing about her, and judged her only by listening to this hot collection of standards, you might think she’d be the next big thing in jazz vocals. Her bright sound and joyful sense of swing is reminiscent of a young Ella Fitzgerald. Just get a load of her going back and forth with Bennett on big band brassy smokers “Anything Goes” (don’t even THINK about the irony of Gaga singing this one!) and “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” She has a sense of punch and style that is infectious. With a smaller group, she is revealing (in a good way) on a rich “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and with strings and Tom Ranier’s piano sounds like she means it on “Lush Life.” As for Tony himself, he delivers an aria on “Sophisticated Lady” that sounds like he’s right there sitting at the bar next to you. You’re going to be hard pressed to find a take of “ They All Laughed” that sounds like the band is having as much fun as the singers (and listeners) as this one.
As for Gaga, she is going to surprise you. Attired in fairly normal clothes, she merely comes off as a “strega” here, and not the embodiment of the downfall of Western Civilization. Sonically, she offers a bright future for music. Hard to argue with that. Any chance of green haired people listening to this? Suddenly there’s hope for the next generation with 3 gaps of a generation being easily bridged.
Streamline Records