1. Just In Time
2. When I Fall In Love
3. Taking A Chance On Love
4. Without A Song
5. Fascinatin’ Rhythm
6. Solitude
7. Pennies From Heaven
8. Lost In The Stars
9. Firefly
10. There Will Never Be Another You
11. Lullaby Of Broadway
12. Ol’ Man River
13. Life Is A Song
14. With Plenty Of Money And You
15. Jeepers Creepers
16. Are You Havin’ Any Fun?
17. Anything Goes
18. Strike Up The Band
19. Chicago
20. I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face
21. Poor Little Rich Girl
22. Growing Pains
23. I Guess I’ll Have To Change My Plan
24. After Supper
25. Ol’ Man River
26. After Supper
25 Ol’ Man River [Instrumental]
26 After Supper [Instrumental]
Tony Bennett
– Vocals (tracks 1-24)
Ralph Sharon – Piano, celeste (tracks 1-12, 14, 16-24)
Count Basie – Piano (tracks 13, 15, 25, 26)
Thad Jones
, Wendell Culley, Snooky Young, Joe
Newman– Trumpet
Henry Coker, Benny Powell, Al Grey – Trombone
Marshall Royal – Alto sax, clarinet
Frank Wess – Alto sax, tenor sax, flute
Billy Mitchell, Frank Foster – Tenor sax
Charlie Fowlkes – Baritone sax
Freddie Green – Guitar
Eddie Jones – Bass
Sonny Payne – Drums
Candido Camero – Conga drum (tracks 5, 12)
In my
review of another Tony Bennett album, I quoted pianist Bill Evans as saying: “Tony Bennett is a jazz singer. And that's because a jazz singer has the ability to give a rather spontaneous
performance that's flexible, with phrasing, and a sensitivity to beat, time and nuance. Tony has all that in abundance".
I am glad to accept this assessment which calms my doubts about Tony Bennett’s abilities as a jazz singer. On some of his recordings, he sounds more like
an easy-listening vocalist, but when he is backed by jazz musicians, he comes across as a jazz singer. Because Tony’s style tends to be understated, I
wondered if he would match the power of the Count Basie Orchestra, which was more accustomed to accompanying blues singers. But I had forgotten that
Bennett often sings with great strength, especially at the end of a song. Just hear the long note he manages at the close of Without A Song.
So there is no doubt about the compatibility of Bennett and the Basie band. And Bennett may have felt more at ease as Ralph Sharon took Basie’s place at
the piano for all but two numbers. Sharon was, of course, Tony Bennett’s long-time accompanist, and he also arranged all the tracks on this album.
Thankfully this doesn’t lead to a watering-down of the Basie band’s traditional vigour. This was still the “New Testament” band, driven by Sonny Payne’s
dynamic drumming and including reedmen Frank Wess and Frank Foster in the front line. A track like With Plenty Of Money And You sounds like the
Basie band at its punchiest. The exhilaration is increased in Fascinatin’ Rhythm and Ol’ Man River by the addition of Candido Camero,
whose percussion adds an extra level of stimulation. (He sounds to me as if he is playing bongoes, not a conga drum as listed on the sleeve.)
Other notable tracks include Lost In The Stars, the title-song from Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson’s 1949 musical. It has a remarkably long
verse and very literate lyrics. There Will Never Be Another You is taken at an unusually slow tempo, which enables us to savour the words,
delivered by Bennett with sensitivity. Most of the songs are jazz standards but After Supper was originally written by Neal Hefti for The Atomic Mr Basie album. It is very much in Basie style, and you can compare Tony Bennett’s interpretation with the original instrumental
version, which is added here as a bonus. The CD contains a further instrumental: another bonus track, the second version of Ol’ Man River, which
is a feature for Sonny Payne’s extrovert drums.
This CD includes the contents of two LPs: In Person! and Basie/Bennett, which were both released in 1959. Strictly speaking, these are
not the “Complete Recordings” as declared on the front cover. Tony Bennett later made an album called A Swingin’ Christmas with the Count Basie
Orchestra, although it was the Basie band as continued after the Count’s death, led by a different musician. As mentioned above, the Count only plays the
piano on two cuts from the original LPs (tracks 13 and 15). At any rate, it is good to have these two albums together on one CD, especially as the original
LPs were rather short on playing-time. The two together provide 74 minutes of fine music.
Tony Augarde
www.augardeBooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Masterwsorks 21327
