Maps of Music

The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975)

Where the lyrics of The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album take you, and where it was really made.

A 1975 duet album started with a suggestion from singer Annie Ross, and the two artists' managers were close friends.

Key places

Recorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley (1975)

Recording site Fantasy Studios — The album was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, from June 10 to 13, 1975. Don Cody engineered the sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album: 1975 studio album by singer Tony Bennett and pianist Bill Evans
• Released in 1975 by Fantasy Records (F 9448)
• Produced by Helen Keane
• Engineer: Don Cody
• Recorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California, June 10-13, 1975
• Their second album together, Together Again, was released in 1977
• Both albums, with alternate takes and additional tracks, were issued in 2009 as The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings
• Nine tracks on the original album

Background

• Singer Annie Ross suggested to Bennett that he should make an album with Evans
• Managers Jack Rollins and Helen Keane were close friends, so the collaboration was readily negotiated
• Fantasy Records was Evans's label at the time
• Bennett and Evans met in London to set the recording dates and choose the repertoire
• Bennett said Evans worked on each song for hours, and he called the album the most prestigious thing he ever did

Recording

• Sessions took place at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California
• Recording ran from June 10 to 13, 1975
• Many songs were favorites Evans had recorded before, several in earlier trio or solo settings

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Artist

Early life

• Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926, in Long Island City, Queens, New York City.
• Grew up in poverty after his father, a grocer, became unable to work and died when Tony was ten.
• Sang for money from age 13 as a singing waiter in Italian restaurants in Queens.
• Attended New York's School of Industrial Art but dropped out at 16 to help support his family.

Military service

• Drafted into the U.S. Army in November 1944 and fought as an infantryman in the final stages of World War II.
• Stayed in Germany with the occupying force and sang with an Army Special Services band under the name Joe Bari.

Career

• Studied bel canto at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill; Pearl Bailey and Bob Hope helped launch him, and Hope shortened his name to Tony Bennett.
• Signed with Columbia Records in 1950; first number-one hit "Because of You" in 1951.
• Shifted toward jazz singing in the late 1950s; "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" (1962) became his signature song.
• Declined commercially during the rock era and struggled with addiction and debt until a comeback in the late 1980s, managed by his son Danny.
• The 1994 MTV Unplugged album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Later career

• Collaborated with Lady Gaga from Cheek to Cheek (2014) through Love for Sale (2021).
• Won 20 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
• Received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2005 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• Co-founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens with Susan Crow.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• All About Jazz reviewer C. Michael Bailey: the two musicians came together at the top of their game to record one of the most memorable vocal-piano duets committed to vinyl, and it is a superb reissue
• Peter Pettinger: Evans was one of the most accomplished and sensitive accompanists in the business, and the pianist enjoyed providing the orchestral support the singer was used to
• Will Friedwald: instead of the singer being accompanied by the pianist, both participants on this album are equal partners
• Ted Gioia: praised the version of Waltz for Debby for the vocalist's touching delivery of Gene Lees' lyrics and for giving a rare chance to hear the pianist solo over the 3/4 changes
• William Ruhlmann of AllMusic: gave the album four and a half stars out of five and wrote positively about it

Reappraisal

• Both albums, with alternate takes and additional tracks, were released on The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings by Fantasy Records in 2009
• On November 8, 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in a box set entitled The Complete Collection

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Annie Ross is the person credited with suggesting that Bennett make an album with Evans.
• Evans had earlier recorded Young and Foolish and Some Other Time for his trio album Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1958).
• Bennett had recorded Waltz for Debby in 1964, and Evans was delighted by it.
• This is the only time Evans recorded Waltz for Debby with lyrics by his friend Gene Lees, and earlier he had recorded a Swedish version with Monica Zetterlund.
• Bennett said he could not believe what Evans was doing, because each thing he played was magnificent.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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