aaamusic | On 18, Sep 2011

And so crusades a legend among musical anachronisms. Tony Bennett, with his smooth, popular-jazz style (the kind that needs the voice announcing it to have its own moustache and scotch on the rocks) is set to release another collection, the aptly-titled ‘Duets II’. But in all honesty, I’m left wondering if he’s misjudged here, as this is an hour of much of the same, punctuated by the occasional bright moment.

Opening with a startling revelation, ‘The Lady Is A Tramp’ has Lady Gaga drop her increasingly shrug-inducing electro-pop briefly to lend her vocal tones to this old standard, but although Bennett is at home, her voice is somewhat too clinical for the chemistry needed to give this cheeky song its lift. ‘One For My Baby’ with John Mayer has a better louche feel to it with the slow tempo and speakeasy vibe giving it a smooth and lush touch. ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore’ tries for a similar mood, but feels let down by once again a certain sterility. Michael Bublé gives it welly and the brass backing sweep their melodies and pound their rhythm stabs, but the sum of the parts feels contrived. As for ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’, I am confused. Willie Nelson’s dusty drawl is entirely out of place, and the whole affair is limping from the handicap of a total mismatch. On the other hand, the cod-operatic Josh Groban number is a case of over-egging the cake.

Another legend in her own right, Aretha Franklin, appears on ‘How Do You Keep The Music Playing’, giving a soulful grace to the song. Her performance is simply wonderful, outshining Bennett at his own game with passion and melodicism as opposed to experience, but once again the setting is his own and proves too tame to let his guest come into their own. K.D. Lang’s turn on ‘Blue Velvet’ is a surprise gem – as a ballad it captures a romance of the classic silver screen variety, with sighing violins and Lang’s rich vocals furnishing the song with an MGM finesse. Queen Latifah too shines with her contribution in a way that recalls Ella Fitzgerald. Contrasting nicely is the sparse fragility of ‘The Girl I Love’, but the old/young vocal match between the star and guest gets unnervingly Lolita-esque at points and the strings get overbearing for Sheryl Crow’s delicate purr. Same with Norah Jones’ turn, despite her smoked-silk vocals being one of the better matches with Bennett’s orchestra.

Now for the big one: ‘Body And Soul’ with Amy Winehouse. And I have to say, she is one of the better guests here due to her being at home in the jazz song, although the big-band orchestrated sound simply drags down her smoky, slurred voice to domestic levels. She always needed the music around her to have the same desolate decadence as she delivered, and so all the soaring strings and expansive piano comes across as superfluous and crass, despite Bennett understandably being right at home in it.

Overall, I’m not sure what to make of this album. Some duets work, others don’t, and I can’t help but feel that many guests simply aren’t suited to Tony Bennett’s musical backing and the way he does his songs. Those with passion are in danger of setting the velvet drapes alight and are thus dampened by a heavy sense of studio hands. Plus, I have no idea who would listen to this. The hip young things might get the fidgets in an hour of smooth jazz, and those who love the genre would get put off by the lacklustre outings that seem to be there purely for the name of the guest involved. And overall, it’s well-crafted and the product of expertise but simply sterile and blandly “emotive”, like listening to every classic Hollywood soundtrack ever made constantly for a month.

 

Author: Katie H-Halinski