Customer Reviews

Tony Bennett on Holiday

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although not one of Tony's greatest albums, this still makes for good listening. The songs of course, are all wonderful, and even though Tony's voice is a little off at times, a little raspy or slightly off-key, well, we must remember, that Billie's voice wasn't always at it's best either. The arrangements are well done, some with just Ralph Sharon on piano, and some with orchestra. Tony doesn't try to imitate Billie, he uses his own styling and phrasing, and for the most part, I think he's done a good job. 19 beautiful songs .. a fitting tribute to Lady Day.

This very artisticly rewarding CD places Tony Bennett in the able hands of The Ralph Sharon Trio(with occasional strings). This CD is excellent, Bennet never sounded better, and he truly feels the songs of Billie Holiday. The only down side is the creepy duet with Billie Holiday(wouldn't it have made more sense for him to duet with fellow Billie Holiday idolizer Anita O'Day, who's still an active singer). Anyhow this CD is recommedned and is very jazz oriented, also don't forget to pick up his latest "Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool" and a couple of classic recommemded Bennett re-issues on CD are "Tony Bennett/Bill Evans-Together Again" and "The Beat Of My Heart" are both very jazz priented, and highly enjoyable.

Bennett's voice is ageless, in fact he sounds more meaningful at 70, then he did in the 1950's, when he was a nervous young performer pernouncing Darn That Dream is Darn That Drum. Anyway this tribute is very nice, although it would have been better without the duet with Holiday and the srings, A trio setting thoughout would have been perfect, however this album is worth picking up.

I've heard enough bad, misguided, exploitive Billie Holiday "tributes" to know better than to pick one up by a male singer standing in front of an image of a stern, jut-jawed black woman who barely resembles Billie Holiday and with a program including a Phil Ramone-produced duet between the featured artist and the deceased. But curiosity won out over my better judgment, leading to the discovery of a simply magnificent album. The project is at once a heartfelt and touching performance by Bennett, a remarkably empathetic and supportive one by his pianist (Ralph Sharon), and above all the most convincing, respectful tribute to, and evocation of, the music of Billie Holiday that I have ever heard.

Ignore the last track, if you prefer (though the similarity in the voices is telling). This album is as generous in song selection (19 tunes altogether) as it is in spirit. Bennett frequently strikes me as somewhat of an "overachiever," trying to attain a gravitas or grandeur that really is more Sinatra's domain than his. Lady Day's art, on the other hand, calls for a singer who can hold his own in spare, lean and intimate settings. Although the album indeed does employ strings, it's always Ralph Sharon's stride-style piano that, like Teddy Wilson's in the case of Billie, is in the foreground, often supplying a tune's only accompaniment. What a refreshing change not to hear Bennett smothered by strings, his voice doctored by excessive reverb. The absence, moreover, of a booming walking bass works to evoke the historical musical context in which these songs first took flight.

This is not Billie Holiday the icon, or Billie the tragic victim of society's or her own excesses, or the faded, decrepit diva who became a ghoulish preoccupation of the latter-day groupies drawn to the "Lady in Satin" album. This is the Billie Holiday whom most listeners have never heard--or simply cannot hear. "I didn't know she sounded like that!"--a typical reaction upon first hearing those inexhaustible miniature masterpieces of the Columbia years in the 1930s or the Commodores in the 1940s.

But the Lady Day who is one of the two greatest female singers of American popular song was "that" Billie Holiday rather than the later one of which sensational stories and movies are made. From now on, before I loan out my copy of "Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday" (an absolutely essential two-disc collection on Columbia), I may first give to the curious a copy of Bennett's tribute as a sort of preparation.

It's instructive to listen to "Willow Weep for Me," comparing the Bennett with the Sinatra reading. Whereas Sinatra goes straight after the drama--the emotion, the loneliness and despair--suggested by the lyric, Bennett emulates the image of a willow, "personifying" through the use of dynamics and the onomatopoeic qualities of the lyric, the sound of a willow weeping. The approach is equally valid and effective, setting up an aesthetic "buffer" between the emotion and its artistic expression. Moreover, it captures the very essence of Holiday's art--the antithesis of anything introspective or ponderous--before the breakdown in her voice all but obliterated the line between art and life.

As for that Amazon "expert" who offers the introductory review panning the album, he probably had the same biases as this writer, but it's clear he's never heard the music on this album--even if he listened to it. Especially puzzling is the characterization of Bennett's voice as a relic of itself, barely able to make some of the notes (maybe he didn't bother to listen to the album after all). The singer is in excellent, if vintage, voice--in fact, I don't hear a single "bad" note. More to the point, music is about "play," and Billie knew how to keep the music in play with every note, inflection, and unexpected turn. So do Tony Bennett and Ralph Sharon.

Geoffrey Himes really missed the mark in his editorial review. So many gems in this album. Every breath, every word and lyric is expressed with the utmost heartfelt emotion, precise timing and feeling and Tony's voice is wonderfully soothing and reflective ... it couldn't sound more perfect. Have a listen and decide what's *sounds* right to you, don't ever take anyone's word for it. It's art! This album inspired me to fall in love with Jazz. Vocal jazz, classic jazz, bop, all jazz ...

I agree with the reviewer who enjoyed the maturity in Bennett's voice. I'm not a HUGE Bennett fan -- I listen widely to jazz singers, and there are others I like better -- but I was moved by several of the renditions here, particularly "Willow Weep for Me," "Good Morning Heartache," and "Some Other Spring."

Now, I think that Billie Holiday OWNS these songs -- particularly the latter two -- but the age in Bennett's still-strong voice made these versions seem rich to me, especially given the exceptional way he phrases the lyrics.

I too like trio settings, but the string accompaniments here are tasteful.

People who want to discuss Tony's age better hope they're doing half as well by the time they get there. I've had this CD for several years (I'm much younger than Tony) and it's one of my favorites; there's no denying his magic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - though "creaking" isn't what I hear when I listen to this CD, as far as that goes, no better example than Janis Joplin exists to attest to the fact that great artistic expression, like many other human experiences, is difficult to define in those sorts of terms.

Tony's rendition of these favorite Billie Holiday songs is perfect. This album is good for all occasions, whether it's while entertaining lots of guests, or just that special one. I listen to this disc all the time. I highly reccommend it to any fan of Bennett or the standards.

What could be a better combination than Tony Bennett and Billie Holiday?

The lyrics are so poignant and his singing gets out every last emotion that's meant to be there. This is the perfect example of why most of today's music is so forgettable:


A. Either there are no lyrics, or the lyrics are pornographic.
B. The melodies are not memorable.
C. The themes are not universal and timeless.
D. The cds are so electronically enhanced, that you really can't tell if the singer has got "the stuff."
E. Will anyone be playing Lady Gaga in 30 years?; I think not.

for fans of tony this is a great recording-had it on cassette for years/used it up-so take a chance and enjoy-john