Concord Prepares Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings

By I Mar. 25, 2009

Tony Bennett joined together with the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans for two albums of duets recorded in 1975 and 1976. The two LPs along with numerous alternate takes and bonus tracks are combined on the two-CD The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, slated for a release on Concord’s Fantasy imprint on April 14. Featuring sessions originally produced by Evans’ longtime manager Helen Keane, the new compilation is produced by Nick Phillips.

Originally released in 1975 on Fantasy, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, the first meeting of the vocalist and pianist, featured the pair performing standards, as well as a moving rendition of the pianist’s classic tune, “Waltz for Debby” (with lyrics written by Gene Lees). Other standards include “But Beautiful,” “The Days of Wine and Roses,” “Young and Foolish” and “The Touch of Your Lips.”

Bennett recalls that the pair didn’t even discuss song choices before the session: “I would name a tune, and Bill would say, ‘That’s good, let’s do that.’ We’d find a key and then the two of us would work it out. For about 45 minutes, we’d work out the arrangement, he’d say, ‘Do you wanna modulate here? How many choruses do you want?’ And then we would play it through and work out all the changes and all that. We spent three days doing that, until we had nine songs in the can.”

In 1976, Bennett and Evans returned to the studio for Together Again for Improv Records (and later reissued on Concord Records). It’s another low-lights, high-improv date of standards that opens with an Evans solo rendition of “The Bad and the Beautiful” and continues with such moving renditions of “Lucky to Be Me,” “You’re Nearer,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “Lonely Girl,” “You Must Believe in Spring” and another Evans’ original, “The Two Lonely People” (with lyrics by Carol Hall).

Both sessions—recorded together, not in isolation booths—yielded several fine alternate takes that are included on The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, as well as two bonus tracks from the second date, with a superb version of Cole Porter’s “Dream Dancing.”