The tour (which still does not have an official calendar, but a great concert at the Royal Albert Hall of London on Jwas just announced) was inaugurated by an extraordinary closed-door concert at Lincoln Center in New York last July. “My heart won’t let my feet do things they should do”, replies Bennett/Astaire. “Think of what you’re losing by constantly refusing to dance with me”, sings Gaga/Ginger in I won’t dance. Some were originally composed for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
The songs chosen by Bennett and Gaga – by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern – are ironic duets between a man and woman in alternate stages of courtship. The album features classic pieces from the Great American Songbook, a selection of the most famous songs performed on Broadway and in Hollywood between the twenties and fifties.
The piece was praised by public and critics alike, and the two decided to continue with that joint venture that, after several months of work, led to Cheek to Cheek. Enthusiastic about the duet, Bennett called Gaga a real “jazz lady”. The result was The lady is a tramp, a song from 1937 that made fun of the high society of Fiorello La Guardia’s New York. In “Duets” (2011), he sang with Amy Winehouse, Michael Bublé, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli and Lady Gaga.ĭuring a charity concert where both performed, Bennett was struck by Gaga’s voice and personality, but especially by the warmth of her fans: where adulation is concerned, you have to admit that no crooner can compare with a pop icon! From a cocktail backstage to the recording studio, the passage was brief. In “Playing with my friends: Bennett sings the blues” (2001), he performed with jazz and R&B icons such as Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Billy Joel, B.B. Like other great performers, Bennett had already performed with many other artists, and many of these collaborations were featured in two albums of duets.
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Jazz is full of contemporary sensibility even though it always remains true to itself, just like Bennett, after all, a gentleman from another age who has made 70 recordings and is the guardian of that traditional singing style for which Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were famous. With a sixty-year gap between them – he’s 88 and she’s 28 – they share Italian origins and a passion for jazz, one of the most long-lived and universal musical genres. But wouldn’t it be more correct to consider this phase of perpetual revival in which we seem to find ourselves a precious moment of introspection necessary for passing from one epoch to another? This, at least, is what emerges from the partnership between Lady Gaga, the first superstar of the new millennium, and Tony Bennett, the last crooner of the old world, the co-author of Cheek to cheek, one of the recordings and revelations of the year. Some say “there aren’t stars like in the past”, “there are no genres anymore”, and “everything has already been done”.