THE FAMOUS DOOR SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
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A musical duet is no less susceptible to power dynamics than any other intimate collaboration between two partners. In creative terms, someone is usually on top. Even when figures of virtually equal standing join up, as Kanye West and Jay-Z did recently with their extravagantly produced and even more extravagantly hyped match-up, Watch the Throne, it’s usually clear that one—in this case, Kanye—exerted more influence, if not quite dominance, over the other. The further apart the artists in age and musical sensibility, the more volatile the power dynamics, as the pop audience will be reminded next week, when Sony releases Duets II by Tony Bennett and a list of names that read like the labels on an aisle bin of the Walmart CD section: Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Faith Hill, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Carrie Underwood, the late Amy Winehouse, and ten others.
Bennett, who turned 85 early last month, relies on still-toned muscle memory to do breathy, unaffected readings of songs he has been performing for longer than most of his new collaborators have been breathing at all—most of them pop standards such as Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’ “The Way You Look Tonight” (done with Faith Hill) and Kurt Weill and Ogdon Nash’s “Speak Low” (with Norah Jones). Bennett has, over the decades, built his repertoire with fastidious attention; and he has always tried to honor the sophistication of his material with all the creative intelligence he can bring to bear. Bennett has never been the most penetrating interpreter of the American songbook; Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Sylvia Syms all drew more levels of meaning from the same body of work. Still, none had better intentions than Bennett. His heart, never really in Northern California, has always been in the right place.
Bennett’s sensibility of earnest traditionalism dominates both Duets II and the first Duets album, released in 2006. His duo companions adjust their styles to suit Bennett, and the results are more homage than collaboration. No harm. Bennett has done enough to earn the reverence that infuses these recordings. Besides, there have been worse albums of duets with crooners of the Ike age—and there will probably be more worse ones. After all, the CD Forever Cool, which presents the voice of Dean Martin with the likes of Charles Aznavour, Kevin Spacey, Shelby Lynne, and Joss Stone, was made in 2007, twelve years after Martin died, by extracting Martin’s voice from vintage tracks and mixing them with new arrangements and recordings by the other singers. How long will it be till we get the posthumous Sammy Davis, Jr. album of duets, I've Gotta Be You?
4 comments
Indeed, Bennet's heart has always been the right place. It's sort of sad to contemplate how few American musicians were involved in the civil rights marches and struggles of the 1960s. (Though perhaps understandable given the status and role of working musicians in the pre-"Everyone's an artiste, if not an outright genius"-rock-era.) To his eternal credit Bennett (the Italian-American crooner out of Queens, NY) did play a modest but real role. It would of been interesting to read more of Hajdu's thoughts on Bennett and Winehouse's actual work. A tone of faint, at best, praise may be coming through - or not. Perhaps I'm reading in the post things that are not there. Still, Hajdu is the rare critic who can bring real musical knowledge and a trained ear to a discussion of popular music. (The NYT's Ben Ratliff and Nate Chinen are two more, but like their much missed predecessor Robert Palmer, they seem constrained by assignment, length and the requirements of the NYT's tone.) Perhaps Hajdu is disgusted or exasperated with much of the contemporary scene. (The loathing of the culture that produced 'Watch The Throne' was palpable.) Given the everything-now-availabe nature of music and the age/education of TNR's readership maybe Hajdu could delve into the past and just discuss things that are of interest to him. The piece on Nina Simone (why a revival now?) was fascinating and informative, but - like this post - way too short.
- mtinora@me.com
September 16, 2011 at 9:48am
Tony Bennett sounds old and wheezy. He's 85 for God's sake. If a guy had chops, they go. He did and they're three quarters out the door, the gushing over his present singing being nostalgia. He sounds like a bit of his old self of course but his old self was an understated singer at that, with more subtle, interpretive dynamics than range, with low key intensity brought to the fore with when he got all fortissimo. Now Amy Winehouse, that's a whole other tragic contrast, such a great singer, with so much potential to sing great jazz, and in any other popular genre she wanted, with fantastic chops, just oozing talent, like to that manor born, and quite dead. Finally, the introductory keying in on the power dynamics in duets is interesting but weird in context here as the point's introduction and elaboration are longer than its application to the record, the commentary on which should have included more detailed impression of particular tracks, especially considering the tease. Brevity here is the soul of the unsaid.
- basman
September 16, 2011 at 11:38am
Any attempts to relocate Tony Bennett's heart from their environs in San Francisco (somewhere on Columbus -- we won't be any more specific) will not succeed. When he shuffles off his mortal coil, all the TV and radio stations in the Bay Area will put "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" on repeat for at least 24 hours.
- NR039835
September 16, 2011 at 2:26pm
I'm spending a weekend afternoon perusing David Hajdu's pieces, and I find myself looking for page 2, or a link to click on to keep reading. These stories all seem much too brief to me, and they end quite abruptly. This story is no exception.
- veeneck
November 19, 2011 at 8:28pm