Customer Reviews

Basie Swings Bennett Sings

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok, so first, the music. While this isn't Bennett's, nor the Basie Band's greatest album, by any means, it's still good. It's not hard swinging, but a light swinging, somewhere between ballads and swingers, suitable to Bennett's vocal style.

But the biggest problem is the CD itself. While the album was recorded in STEREO in 1959, the CD presents all these tracks in MONO. Why? I don't know. I have a handful of these songs on other official Capitol/Blue Note/Roulette CDs, and they are not only in stereo, but the fidelity is much cleaner. (Two are available on Basie's Roulette remasters from 2002, and another is available on Wild, Cool and Swingin'). Perhaps some of the masters were not available. Regardless, it would have been preferable to even press a stereo after-market LP, instead of these inferior mono versions, which aren't even clean-sounding mono.

Anyway, this album is available on a number of 3rd party labels and bootlegs, and they sound shoddy on all of them, too. Most are in mono, but a few are in stereo if you look around. Hopefully, someday Capitol will pull out all the masters for this album, clean them up, and release a decent sounding album in stereo.

Despite my problems with this CD pressing, this IS the best sounding version of this album to get. So, if you MUST own this one, i definitely encourage you to buy this Roulette release, as it is the best sounding of whats available.

There are three really great Tony Bennett albums, and this 1958 album originally released on Roulette Records is one of them (for the record, the other two are "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and "Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album"). Ironically, Count Basie did not have all that much of a hand in the album. Yes, it is his orchestra, which certainly sounds great. But Basie only plays the piano on two of the tracks, "Life Is a Song" and "Jeepers Creepers." Bennett's own pianist Ralph Sharon not only plays the piano on the other tracks but did all the charts for these songs as well. Still, these songs are very much done in the Count Basie style, as evidenced on "Strike Up the Band," "Chicago," and "With Plenty of Money and You." You would not think of Bennett as being a jazz singer per se, but he is right at home in front of the Count Basie Orchestra proving he would have been a great band singer if he had been born a decade or two earlier. My favorite track is "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," a song from the musical "My Fair Lady," which you would have thought was written by Bennett as it is one of those perfect marriages of singer and song. He never sang any song better than this one. This 1990 CD reissue also includes a Neal Hefti ballad, "After Supper," but even with this bonus track the main complaint about this album is that it is only a half-hour long (which is certainly representative of the times).

This is a nice album from fairly early in Tony's career, and fairly late in Count Basie's. The count himself is only a factor in a couple of selections, although his orchestra is present throughout...but don't buy this one for Basie, buy it for Bennett. There are two numbers on here I have never liked much: "Chicago" and "Jeepers Creepers." However, I must say that I do like what Tony Bennett does with both of them. He is also super with "Anything Goes" and "I Guess I'll Have to Change my Plans." I can't fault his version of "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face" except to say that as a fan of "My Fair Lady" from the late 50's to the present, I prefer Rex Harrison's talk/sing rendition to any other style. Some of the less well-known songs on here are also quite interesting. I gave it four stars instead of five simply because it is short by modern CD standards...but it is a consistently pleasant and strong half-hour of jazz vocals.

Basie actually only appears on two of the 12 tracks, Bennett's long time arranger/pianist Ralph Sharon, is on the remaining 10 trcks, Sharon also is the arranger for this session, though his arrangements were very Basie-ish. Bennett sounds happay as ever to be backed by the Basie Big Band. This is one of Bennett's finest sessions of the 50's, and shows beyond a doubt how great of a jazz singer Tony Bennett is, yes I said JAZZ SINGER, because that's what he is. Highly recommeded CD.

This is about as good as 'swing' singing gets. Tony pours out exuberent enthusiasm on the swinging numbers like 'guess ill have to change my plans' and 'plenty of money', and delivers delightful tenderness on the slower ballads, always combined with perfect control. Basie keeps every tune, fast or slow, swinging energetically. The songs are all picked with the exquisite and adventurous taste we expect from Bennett. The album is highlighted by a wonderful vocalise coda by Bennett on 'plenty of money', and the deft subtlety on 'after supper'. The recording and mastering quality are first rate. Buy this album.

Well, I guess the title says it all. After hearing the excellent sound on Roulette's COUNT BASIE STORY album, I was excited to pick this one up, expecting the same kind of crisp, clear fidelity. Imagine my surprise to find a CD-R with a cheap press-on label with the words "Jazz Heritage Society" on it. Terrible -- it sounds like it was dubbed off an old eight track or something. The roaring Snooky Young-led brass section is reduced to a muddy mumble.

Moral of the story: don't settle for anything but the real McCoy -- Basie and Bennett deserve much better. Four stars for the music, minus two stars for the ripoff.

This is a great CD for any swing lover. Tony Bennett's voice is at it's best and Basie's band (as usual) swings like crazy. The only drawback is that the recording is very short for a CD (just over 30 minutes). Perhaps some alternate takes would have been a good idea here.

There have been many swingin' orchestra's thoughout history but only a few can outswing the spectular Basie Orchesra, Basie himself only appears on several tracks, but Ralph Sharon provides the hot arrangements. And the Basie sound is ever present throughout. Bennet sounds delighted to be fronting this swingin' outfit. And it is a true joy to hear the world's most under-rated male jazz singer(Doris Day takes the most under-rated femal jazz singer award) swinging with one of the finest big bands ever to swing. This is really great stuff, you can't help but get out of you're chair and start doing the lindy hop. Excellent and highly recommeded music. If you like this you might also want to try "Young Man With a Horn" by Doris Day and Harry James, believe me you'll love it, don't juudge Doris Day till you hear her sizzle on "Too Marvelous For Words" backed by the red hot Harry James Trio.

Like many crooners whose careers have lasted through the decades, Tony Bennett's voice has changed a great deal. These early tracks are a tad shrill, and don't have the smoothness you might expect if you are a fan of any Bennett songs since the 60's. More ballads than swing.

Tony Bennett in my book never was a hard driving swinging singer like Sinatra or Bobby Darin were.

But that notwithstanding, this album is weak and just doesn't want to swing like you'd expect from Basie. There are a few hot moments but they seem forced.

I think that part of the problem is that Ralph Sharon wrote the charts to some of these sings. But even Neil Hefti was not Basie's best arranger either.

In short, this album does not live up to its expectations.