Maps of Music

Together Again (1977)

Where the lyrics of Together Again take you, and where it was really made.

Issued on Bennett's own Improv label, which went out of business that same year, this album was later reissued by Concord.

Key places

Recorded at Columbia Studios in San Francisco (1977)

Recording site Columbia Studios — The sessions ran from 27 to 30 September 1976 at Columbia Studios in San Francisco. Don Cody served as engineer and co-producer. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Together Again: 1977 studio album by singer Tony Bennett and jazz pianist Bill Evans
• First issued on Bennett's own Improv Records, which went out of business later that year
• Reissued on Concord afterward
• Recorded at Columbia Studios, San Francisco, 27-30 September 1976
• Produced by Helen Keane and Don Cody; Don Cody also served as engineer
• Ten numbered tracks; the CD reissue adds two bonus tracks

Background

• Their first album together, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, was released by Fantasy Records in 1975
• Fantasy released both albums with alternate takes and additional tracks as The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings in 2009
• Concord Jazz released a CD reissue in 2003 with two unreleased tracks and six alternate takes
• On 8 November 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in a box set, The Complete Collection

Recording

• Sessions took place at Columbia Studios in San Francisco
• Don Cody engineered the sessions and co-produced the album
• Remastering credits on Discogs list Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch, with DigiPrep as remastering company

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.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

Reappraisal

• AllMusic reviewer William Ruhlman wrote that Evans dominates this encounter more than he did the first, but that it is still a good showcase for Bennett
• Evans biographer Peter Pettinger said the two artists made a recording at least as relaxed and mutually in tune as their first
• Pettinger singled out the hushed rendering of one of Michel Legrand's finest songs, "You Must Believe in Spring"

Records

• 2003: Concord Jazz CD reissue with two unreleased tracks and six alternate takes
• 2009: Fantasy double CD pairing both albums with alternate takes and extra tracks
• 2011: CD included in the Sony Music Distribution box set The Complete Collection

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album opens with a brief Evans solo on David Raksin's theme "The Bad and the Beautiful", from the film of that title.
• "Lucky to Be Me" was recorded solo by Evans on Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1958) and as a vocal version with Monica Zetterlund in 1964.
• "The Two Lonely People" is an Evans original that he first presented on The Bill Evans Album (1971).
• "A Child Is Born" was recorded by Evans with a quintet a few months earlier for the album Quintessence.
• Bennett first recorded "Maybe September" in 1966 for The Movie Song Album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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