Tony Bennett accepted the boundaries of his universe.
In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of songwriting embodied by the entire Great American Songbook era, and how a singer can work in dialogue with that songwriter even decades after their death to create meaning.
In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of songwriting embodied by the entire Great American Songbook era, and how a singer can work in dialogue with that songwriter even decades after their death to create meaning.
- 7/23/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Ahmad Jamal, the influential jazz pianist whose style influenced generations of musicians for seven decades, died on Sunday, The Washington Post reports. He was 92. His wife, Laura Hess-Hey, confirmed the news to the newspaper. No further details were disclosed.
Jamal began his professional career while still in high school in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and continued to create and influence multiple music genres through his seven-decade career. Originally performing under the name Fritz Jones, he was among the first African American artists who publicly adopted the Muslim faith and...
Jamal began his professional career while still in high school in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and continued to create and influence multiple music genres through his seven-decade career. Originally performing under the name Fritz Jones, he was among the first African American artists who publicly adopted the Muslim faith and...
- 4/17/2023
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
The Newport Jazz Festival has announced its 2023 lineup, with Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, and Thundercat leading the bill. The legendary fest celebrates its 69th anniversary from August 4th to 6th at Fort Adams State Park in Rhode Island.
Other big names on the 2023 Newport lineup include Kamasi Washington, Diana Krall, Charles Lloyd, Vijay Iyer, Samara Joy, DOMi & Jd Beck, Arooj Aftab, Big Freedia, DJ Pee .Wee (aka Anderson .Paak), Big Gigantic, Alfa Mist, and Cautious Clay. Newport Jazz artistic director Christian McBride will also lead his annual Jam Jawn, while the ensembles MoodSwing, Scary Goldings (featuring John Scofield), Superblue, Orrin Evans Quintet, and the Bill Charlap Trio will perform as well. Check out the complete lineup below.
Specially priced three-day tickets to the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival go on sale Wednesday, March 22nd at 1:00 p.m. Et via Dice. That deal extends for 24 hours; full-price single-day, two-day, and three-day tickets then go on sale Thursday,...
Other big names on the 2023 Newport lineup include Kamasi Washington, Diana Krall, Charles Lloyd, Vijay Iyer, Samara Joy, DOMi & Jd Beck, Arooj Aftab, Big Freedia, DJ Pee .Wee (aka Anderson .Paak), Big Gigantic, Alfa Mist, and Cautious Clay. Newport Jazz artistic director Christian McBride will also lead his annual Jam Jawn, while the ensembles MoodSwing, Scary Goldings (featuring John Scofield), Superblue, Orrin Evans Quintet, and the Bill Charlap Trio will perform as well. Check out the complete lineup below.
Specially priced three-day tickets to the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival go on sale Wednesday, March 22nd at 1:00 p.m. Et via Dice. That deal extends for 24 hours; full-price single-day, two-day, and three-day tickets then go on sale Thursday,...
- 3/22/2023
- by Carys Anderson
- Consequence - Music
Barbra Streisand has plenty of Grammys on her shelf — eight to be exact — but there is one award that has eluded her for decades: Best Traditional Pop Album. She has now been nominated for that award 12 times, but she hasn’t won it yet. That’s because Tony Bennett refuses to loosen his stranglehold on the category. Bennett has won almost half of all awards handed out in this category. Will he add to that haul this year?
Bennett has won Best Traditional Pop Album a whopping 13 times out of his 15 nominations over the 27-year history of the category, so he’s close to undefeated. And six of those victories were in head-to-head match-ups against Streisand. Bennett even won last year when he wasn’t technically nominated: the Grammys awarded “Tony Bennett Celebrates 90,” a compilation album celebrating his 90th birthday. He performed on the album, but the prize went to the producer,...
Bennett has won Best Traditional Pop Album a whopping 13 times out of his 15 nominations over the 27-year history of the category, so he’s close to undefeated. And six of those victories were in head-to-head match-ups against Streisand. Bennett even won last year when he wasn’t technically nominated: the Grammys awarded “Tony Bennett Celebrates 90,” a compilation album celebrating his 90th birthday. He performed on the album, but the prize went to the producer,...
- 12/26/2018
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
The recording academy has presented the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Performance since 1991. Exactly half of those trophies (12 out of 24) have gone to music legend Tony Bennett, including last year when he prevailed with Lady Gaga for their collaboration "Cheek to Cheek." Is he unstoppable again with Bill Charlap for "The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern"? -Break- Subscribe to Gold Derby Breaking News Alerts & Experts’ Latest Oscar Predictions We have nine Expert journalists predicting the Grammys, and six of them are expecting Bennett to continue his winning streak, giving him and Charlap 8/13 odds: Phil Gallo, Glenn Gamboa (Newsday), Tim Gray (Variety), Edna Gundersen, Tom O'Neil (Gold Derby) and Paul Sheehan. Bennett's track record in this category is even more impressive when you consider that he has only lost twice when nominated, both times to younger crooner Michael Buble,...
- 2/10/2016
- Gold Derby
On Saturday, October 17, Symphony Space presents Frank Sinatra at 100, a starry celebration of the iconic singer's centennial. Over the course of three three-hour sets - 2 pm, 5 pm, and 8 pm - no fewer than 100 songs from Sinatra's repertoire will be performed by an impressive roster of interpreters, including Peter Cincotti, Tony Danza, Rebecca Luker, Marilyn Maye, Tierney Sutton, and dozens more. Instrumental renditions by pianist Bill Charlap, the guitar duo of Bucky Pizzarelli amp Ed Laub, and saxophonists Harry Allen and Ted Nash will complement the vocal selections. The house band throughout the day will be led by Russ Kassoff on piano, withDick Sarpola on bass andJohn Redsecker on drums.
- 9/24/2015
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries” …
Robin Weigert: I’ve become a big jazz fan this year. Its newly my music of choice. I’ve been reading a ton about Russia because of something I’m writing and I’ve been listening to Dave Brubeck, Theloneous Monk, Miles Davis, Bill Charlap. Sort of anomalous, I know, listening to this sound that’s so unbounded and so totally American and reading about gulags, crony capitalism and kleptocracy. I’m at work on something and I don’t exactly know what it is, so I’m just letting instinct take me right now. I think I’m trying to figure out what freedom is, sounds like, feels like. I was hugely inspired by the film Whiplash, which was somehow right on theme for me. True freedom may mean being slave to nothing but your own muse, its true,...
Robin Weigert: I’ve become a big jazz fan this year. Its newly my music of choice. I’ve been reading a ton about Russia because of something I’m writing and I’ve been listening to Dave Brubeck, Theloneous Monk, Miles Davis, Bill Charlap. Sort of anomalous, I know, listening to this sound that’s so unbounded and so totally American and reading about gulags, crony capitalism and kleptocracy. I’m at work on something and I don’t exactly know what it is, so I’m just letting instinct take me right now. I think I’m trying to figure out what freedom is, sounds like, feels like. I was hugely inspired by the film Whiplash, which was somehow right on theme for me. True freedom may mean being slave to nothing but your own muse, its true,...
- 2/6/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Symphony Space's free signature event, Wall to Wall, took up the theme with Wall to Wall Cabaret on Saturday, May 3. The lineup of nearly 50 performers was a veritable roll call of cabaret icons and rising stars, including Kate Baldwin,Klea Blackhurst, Barbara Carroll, Bill Charlap Sandy Stewart, Barbara Cook, Judy Gold, Julie Halston, Ute Lemper, Lypsinka, Taylor Mac, Andrea Marcovicci, Marilyn Maye,Andrea McArdle, Jane Monheit, Steve Ross, Billy Stritch, and many more. James Naughton served as the evening's Master of Ceremonies. The distinguished house band for the evening was Russ Kassoff on piano, John Arbo on bass, and John Redsecker on drums.
- 5/4/2014
- by Stephen Sorokoff
- BroadwayWorld.com
Providence, R.I. — Roger Lewis has hauled his baritone saxophone to gigs in far-flung places, from England to Japan to New Guinea. He's played so many places he's lost count of precisely where he's been. But he's never forgotten Newport.
Lewis, a member of New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band, returns to Rhode Island's city-by-the-sea again this weekend for the Newport Jazz Festival, an event he calls "one of the greatest festivals in the world."
"I remember listening to that Ray Charles album from when he played Newport," Lewis told The Associated Press by phone from his home in New Orleans, where he had been practicing some numbers he expects to play in Newport. "We've played all around the world but to have the opportunity to play Newport has been a dream."
The festival begins Friday with performances by Natalie Cole, her uncle Freddy Cole and the Bill Charlap Trio...
Lewis, a member of New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band, returns to Rhode Island's city-by-the-sea again this weekend for the Newport Jazz Festival, an event he calls "one of the greatest festivals in the world."
"I remember listening to that Ray Charles album from when he played Newport," Lewis told The Associated Press by phone from his home in New Orleans, where he had been practicing some numbers he expects to play in Newport. "We've played all around the world but to have the opportunity to play Newport has been a dream."
The festival begins Friday with performances by Natalie Cole, her uncle Freddy Cole and the Bill Charlap Trio...
- 7/29/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
New York -- Tony Bennett never forgot the first time he performed with Dave Brubeck more than half a century ago. But the tape of that memorable collaboration between two American jazz masters lay forgotten in a record label's vaults until its discovery by an archivist just weeks after Brubeck's death in December, and it's just been released as "Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions, Live 1962."
President John F. Kennedy's White House made this jazz summit possible when it booked Brubeck and Bennett to perform at a concert on Aug. 28, 1962, for college-age summer interns. The crowd was so big that the concert had to be moved from the Rose Garden to an open-air theater at the base of the Washington Monument.
After Brubeck and Bennett each performed with their bands, the pianist came back on stage with his drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright to accompany the singer...
President John F. Kennedy's White House made this jazz summit possible when it booked Brubeck and Bennett to perform at a concert on Aug. 28, 1962, for college-age summer interns. The crowd was so big that the concert had to be moved from the Rose Garden to an open-air theater at the base of the Washington Monument.
After Brubeck and Bennett each performed with their bands, the pianist came back on stage with his drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright to accompany the singer...
- 6/19/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
New York — A celebration of Dave Brubeck's life and music turned into an ode to joy as family, friends and fans paid tribute to the groundbreaking pianist and composer who became the best known ambassador of jazz to the world.
Brubeck died Dec. 5, a day before his 92nd birthday, and a private funeral was held near his home in Wilton, Conn., shortly afterward. On Saturday afternoon, the only Brubeck family sponsored tribute took place before more than 2,000 people at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine featuring performances by Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Roberta Gambarini, Hilary Kole and other jazz stars.
Former President Bill Clinton, in a statement read by Brubeck's longtime manager Russell Gloyd, recalled being "utterly captivated" at age 15 after hearing Brubeck's quartet in concert and then going home to play "Take Five" until his lips gave out. "I consider myself lucky to have...
Brubeck died Dec. 5, a day before his 92nd birthday, and a private funeral was held near his home in Wilton, Conn., shortly afterward. On Saturday afternoon, the only Brubeck family sponsored tribute took place before more than 2,000 people at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine featuring performances by Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Roberta Gambarini, Hilary Kole and other jazz stars.
Former President Bill Clinton, in a statement read by Brubeck's longtime manager Russell Gloyd, recalled being "utterly captivated" at age 15 after hearing Brubeck's quartet in concert and then going home to play "Take Five" until his lips gave out. "I consider myself lucky to have...
- 5/12/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
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