Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie Review

Tony Sings the Great Hits of Yesterday!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 8, 2012

Geek alert: I grew up loving the music of Percy Faith. That name may not mean much to younger readers, but Percy was one of the all time most successful arrangers in the post-World War II era and he remains to this day the only artist who has charted Number 1 singles in both the “pop vocalist” era (“The Song from Moulin Rouge”) and the rock era (“Theme from A Summer Place"), a record that seems unlikely to be shattered, given the vagaries of time and the dearth of artists still alive that span both timeframes. Faith had a remarkable run of top selling singles and albums through the fifties and sixties, and he is credited not only with helping to invent and codify the “easy listening” genre, but also for being one of the first to treat rock hits of the day to high gloss orchestral arrangements, with such top selling albums as Themes for Young Lovers and several follow-ups. Film lovers may recognize Percy’s name from his Oscar nominated score adaptation for the Doris Day biopic Love Me or Leave Me, as well as Percy’s underrated dramatic scores for such films as The Third Day and the lamentable Stephen Boyd-Elke Sommer opus The Oscar. One of the co-stars of The Oscar was a top selling vocalist whose career Faith had shepherded for years in his guise as chief arranger for A&R Director Mitch Miller at Columbia Records—one Tony Bennett.

Faith had a hand in innumerable vocalists reaching the Top 10 throughout the fifties and even a bit into the sixties, including everyone from Doris Day herself to Rosemary Clooney to Guy Mitchell (Faith co-wrote Guy’s number 1 hit “My Heart Cries for You”) to, yes, Tony Bennett. Bennett was “just another” vocalist in the rather large Columbia stable in the early fifties, churning out a number of top selling singles (often with Faith arrangements) like “Because of You” and “Rags to Riches”. Bennett’s entrance into the permanent public lexicon didn’t happen until 1962, and it was completely by happenstance. This was in the day of the “cover tune,” pop songs that were shopped to any number of artists simultaneously, many of whom would come out with their own versions, hoping to strike gold. The Broadway musical All American had opened, with songs by Bye Bye Birdie’s Charles Strouse and Lee Adams (and a book by Mel Brooks), and its score (recorded on a Columbia Original Cast Album) contained the gorgeous ballad “Once Upon a Time,” which Bennett recorded and fully expected to be his next hit. The B-side on the 45 was a tune no one had ever heard of, but which attracted the attention of a DJ working at a station in the “City by the Bay,” a DJ who was attracted to the song’s title: “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” The song quickly attracted attention in San Francisco and then caught on like wildfire across the nation, becoming Bennett’s signature tune.

Unfortunately, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was in some ways the high water mark of Bennett’s pop career, for within just a few months of its release, the British Invasion helped cement the sounds of rock as the dominant force in Top 40 radio, and easy listening artists like Bennett found themselves pushed to the relative sidelines. Bennett’s “acting” appearance in The Oscar probably didn’t help much, but for Bennett fans who may not be aware of it, it’s worth checking out, plus Tony sings the absolutely gorgeous Faith ballad “Maybe September” on the soundtrack, a hauntingly beautiful song that is a sterling example of Bennett’s impeccable timbre and especially of his unbelievable breath control. Though Tony did continue to chart, at least on the Adult Contemporary charts, he, like so many other pop vocalists who had been major forces in the fifties, found himself deemed irrelevant, for better or worse.

Bennett was nothing if not a smart businessman, though, something that probably saved his career, albeit after a period of some turmoil. When Columbia was intent on making him “relevant” by singing more rock oriented material (including for the much lambasted album Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!), Bennett didn’t just resist, he left his long corporate home and set out rebranding himself as a jazz vocalist, releasing albums with icons like the legendary pianist Bill Evans. (Truth be told, Bennett had always had a jazz edge, something highlighted by his long and fruitful association with Ralph Sharon). Bennett didn’t meet with much commercial success, though, and his life spiraled out of control, with divorce and drug addiction in the troublesome wake.

Bennett’s son Danny came to his aid and began booking his father on shows with a younger leaning demographic, and Bennett’s sales became the strongest since his fifties and early sixties heyday. He’s continued to reach out to audiences who might not otherwise be prone to checking him out with his Duets albums. His first Duets outing was made when he was at the venerable age of 80, and it became an immense hit. Now five years later, Bennett teams with an amazing variety of artists who help him celebrate his 85th birthday. If it’s true his voice isn’t quite what it once was (though it’s still an amazing instrument considering its age), his song choices are still superb and his artistry here is palpable.

This release is something of a scrapbook documenting the live recording sessions. Each of the artists gives a brief reminiscence or anecdote about what Bennett means to them as artists, and then we get footage of what appears to be the actual recording sessions (for the most part, anyway). All of the disparate artists selected by Tony and producer Phil Ramone for this second Duets album seem to realize the honor they’ve been handed to collaborate with such a legend, and they all sound fantastic. This was sadly Amy Winehouse’s last session, and while she seems clear eyed and clear headed, vocally she almost seems to be channeling Lady Day herself, Billie Holiday. Considering their shared proclivities for substance abuse and the ravages that abuse visited on both of them, perhaps it’s a more than apt comparison.

The songs included on this disc are:

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore with Michael Bublé

Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) with Queen Latifah

Stranger in Paradise with Andrea Bocelli

Watch What Happens with Natalie Cole

Body and Soul with Amy Winehouse

It Had to Be You with Carrie Underwood

Blue Velvet with k.d. lang

Speak Low with Norah Jones

On the Sunny Side of the Street with Willie Nelson

The Way You Look Tonight with Faith Hill

Yesterday I Heard the Rain with Alejandro Sanz

The Girl I Love with Sheryl Crow

This Is All I Ask with Josh Groban

The Lady Is a Tramp with Lady Gaga

One For My Baby (And One More for the Road) with John Mayer

How Do You Keep the Music Playing with Aretha Franklin

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tony Bennett Duets II is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Columbia Records with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a very sharp and appealing looking high definition presentation, with great colors (dig Lady Gaga's hair!), nicely differentiated contrast and good to excellent black levels. Some of the in studio elements suffer from inadequate lighting conditions, and while there's not crush per se, shadow detail can be on the murky side at times. A couple of the interview segments (notably Natalie Cole's) look really soft and fuzzy, perhaps at least partially attributable to lighting conditions.

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tony Bennett Duets II offers only one lossless audio mix, unlike the three—two lossless and one standard Dolby— mixes that usually accompany these releases. The LPCM 2.0 stereo mix is full and rich sounding, with brilliant fidelity and a surprising amount of dynamic range. There's not immense stereo separation, something that might seem odd considering the duet structure, but each participant is cleanly and clearly reproduced. There is an odd synch issue on the Amy Winehouse sequence which leads me to believe that perhaps the album track was melded to footage, perhaps not from the take ultimately used. It's also obvious that the Lady Gaga sequence is for a music video, not the supposedly "live" recordings being hyped with this release. One way or the other, though, the audio itself, whether live or Memorex, sounds agile, fresh and exuberant.

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Birthday Greetings (1080i; 3:03) has several of Tony's collaborators wishing him a happy 85th.


• Signed Sheet Music (SD; 2:40) features a slide show of the charts used in these sessions signed by Tony's duet partners.

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tony Bennett is a national treasure, though I have it on good authority he can be a bit more curmudgeonly in "real life" than the affable collaborator seen on this fun set of duets. (He's even allegedly been known to dis Percy Faith, heaven forfend!) Bennett still has immaculate chops, at least considering his age, and his duet partners here all sound marvelous. This interesting video release is part "making of" documentary, part live concert footage, and it's a fitting testament to Bennett's staying power in the always treacherous waters of popular music. Highly recommended.