http://www.wsj.com/articles/tony-ben...bum-1442937002
Tony Bennett, 89-Year-Old Improviser, Releases New Jazz Album
By
Marc Myers
Tony Bennett is still exploring the unknown. A year after collaborating with Lady Gaga on “Cheek to Cheek”—their Grammy-winning album and seven-month global tour that followed—the 89 year-old singer is once again putting his reputation on the line.
On Sept. 25, Mr. Bennett will release “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern” (RPM/Columbia), a jazz album recorded last year that exposes his voice and gift for improvisation. Instead of singing with an orchestra, he is accompanied only by jazz pianist Bill Charlap, two jazz pianos played by Mr. Charlap and his wife, Renee Rosnes, and by Mr. Charlap’s trio, with Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums.
Preorders have propelled the album into Amazon’s best-selling vocal jazz and vocal pop offerings. Mr. Bennett spoke to the Journal while sitting on a blue sofa in the studio where he paints overlooking New York’s Central Park. Edited from an interview:
Are you and Lady Gaga planning a second album?
We’ve been talking about it. We’ll see what happens. She’s been working on a TV project [“American Horror Story: Hotel”]. I’d like to. I love when she sings an intimate ballad. I want to record more of those with her.
Touring with Lady Gaga this year made you a superstar—again. Does stardom feel different today?
.
Hey, I’ve been around a long time. I had my first No. 1 hit [“Because of You”] in 1951. After “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in ‘62 and my Carnegie Hall concert album that year, things were pretty great. Today, it’s different. Everything is bigger and global. It’s a big business. In some places where Lady Gaga and I performed, it was like singing at a baseball game.
Did you like that?
Not really. I prefer smaller, acoustic halls. My voice needs an intimate space so the audience can feel it and I can feed off their reactions. I like Carnegie Hall. It’s only 2,400 seats [laughs]. Lady Gaga and I both love Radio City Music Hall. It’s perfect in terms of visual beauty and sound for my kind of music.
Are you a jazz singer or a pop singer?
People think I’m a pop singer, but I’m really a jazz interpreter of the American songbook. Jazz is honest music, and singing with jazz musicians inspires me. I never sing a song the same way twice. I might change the emphasis on words. Or I might drop back a little behind the beat or get ahead of it. Or I may jump an octave on notes to add emphasis and change things up. But I never plan what I’m going to do in advance. These choices are intuitive and happen in the moment, depending on how accompanying jazz musicians move me.
Some singers find that scary, no?
Well, that’s their problem [laughs].
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