TONY BENNETT AND BILL EVANS,The Complete Tony Bennett/ Bill Evans Recordings
Universal *****
When the singer and the pianist got together for The Tony Bennett/ Bill Evans Album, the first of their two mid-1970s duo dates, it was a surprise. Despite an occasional flirtation, Bennett wasn't viewed as a jazz singer, and John Lennon's jibes in British showbiz bible Melody Makersuggested he was only a notch above terminally uncool crooner Andy Williams (remember him?).
Evans, on the other hand, was the most influential jazz pianist around; cerebral, introverted, a poet of sound, the epitome of cool. But cool is temporary, class permanent, and both had the latter in abundance. And though Evans had recorded with a singer only once before, when his trio made a fine album in 1964 with the Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, he and Bennett miraculously gelled.
They picked good material, but it was also more than just a singer with piano accompaniment. Evans, who rewrote the rules for trio democracy in jazz, was an equal partner in this sophisticated venture. Time and again he would amplify Bennett’s assured and poised reading of the lyrics, either by deftly responding to a line or,
in solo after solo, beautifully expanding on the emotional freight of such songs as Young And Foolish, Some Other Time(with Evans's Peace Pieceintro), We'll Be Together Again, My Foolish Heart, Waltz for Debby, But Beautifuland a glorious Days of Wine and Roses.
A year later, in 1976, they made their second duo album, Together Again.They were just as good, but the material, in some respects, was not – A Child Is Born, The Two Lonely Peopleand Lonely Girl, despite their musical qualities, lack memorable lyrics. But there is a lovely You Must Believe In Spring,and impressive work on You Don't Know What Love Is, Dream Dancing, You're Nearerand Lucky to Be Me.
The second CD, with 20 previously released alternate takes from both albums, offers further pleasures and consistently high-level performances. Bennett occasionally takes slight liberties of line and phrasing, but the duo works best the simpler he sings – a difficult art to master, as he and Evans did so superbly on the originally issued takes.
