Product Description

Movie DVD

Track Listing

1. Exactly Like You
2. La Vie En Rose
3. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
4. You Can Depend On Me
5. What A Wonderful World
6. That's My Home
7. A Kiss To Build A Dream On
8. I Wonder
9. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
10. You Can't Lose A Broken Heart
11. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
12. If We Never Meet Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5155 in Music
• Brand: PHASE 4 FILMS
• Released on: 2002-11-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
Never mind the project's odd couple, "He's got a girlfriend; so does she" marketing shuck. This is a musical love affair in all its splendor. Produced by the seemingly chameleonic producer T Bone Burnett (who previously revived traditional bluegrass with spectacular success on O Brother, Where Art Thou?), the septuagenarian legend and his unlikely contemporary foil affectionately court a dozen songs from the Louis Armstrong repertoire with the warmth and natural grace that have been a deceptively effortless Bennett trademark for 50-plus years. The pair kick proceedings off with a playful, irony-free "Exactly Like You," then perform a tender vocal waltz across both the ages and the masterful, sympathetic orchestrations of the late Peter Matz, one of Bennett's longtime collaborators. But it's on the more melancholy performances, like "If We Never Meet Again," "I'm Confessin'," and the Armstrong perennials "Wonderful World" and "Lucky Old Sun," that the pair tap into something akin to timeless musical telepathy. Her own talents hardly in need of burnishing, lang invests the project with some gratifying new smokiness and is rewarded with a postgraduate course in saloon singing for the ages. It's an album that begs the best kind of question: When do we get an encore? --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Another exquisite release from Tony Bennett...
Since his return to Columbia Records in the 1980s, Tony Bennett has released albums of the best quality...this is one of the best from his already awe-inspiring catalog.

To give equal credit, kd lang has one of the best voices in American music...the combination of their voices is magical.

There is almost no hint of the vocal decline in Bennett's voice that I had been noticing in his most recent albums, such as the Billie Holiday tribute. He sounds to me almost 15 years younger.

Louis Armstrong was a good friend of Tony Bennett's, and I'm confident that Armstrong would be most flattered by the tribute on this album.

This album proves that Tony Bennett, more than anybody else, is keeping the Great American songbook alive and relevant.

I only wish it were longer...it's just 43 minutes. If Sony and the other companies keep raising prices, the consumer deserves a longer product. But at least with a compact disc player you can hit repeat...which I guarantee you will do with this album.

I've listened to hundreds of discs this year, and I'd have to say that this is perhaps the best...a true recording highlight for 2002. This is what sound recording should be all about.

Bennett still a legend at 75
Tony Bennett sounds on this album as good as he sounded twenty years ago. The slightly cracked quality in his voice remains, but he struggles less with long notes than on his most recent albums. In particular, this album is a massive leap forward from the eclectic showboating of Playin' With My Friends.

It has long been a mystery to Bennett fans why Mr B did not do a full album with k.d. lang much sooner - their voices blend together so perfectly.

Here, Tony Bennett is paying tribute to a man he cares about - Louis Armstrong. He is singing material that he empathises with - no modern concessions. The arrangements on the album are superb - and hint back to his best work of the 1960s.

In short this is an album by an artist, who, whilst no longer at the peak of his powers, is still able to deliver a fine performance when focused on the material. He finds that focus on this splendid album.

"You Can Depend On..." This One
Louis Armstrong is my favorite instrumentalist AND vocalist of all time. So, we have Tony Bennett (the best old style jazz singer still kicking) and K.D. Lang...well, what do you say about K.D. Lang? Just the best voice in so-called country and easily one of the top four vocalists in jazz (with Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves and Diana Krall). Now we have these premier singers doing Louie songs. How about that cover of "Exactly Like You". Oh man. I listened to that one four times before I went on the rest of the album. Every song is exquisite. "What a Wonderful World" is my numero uno song on the hit parade of all songs ever written. What a great cover. And dig that cover of "Lucky Old Sun". Whoa. I had to go through that one three times before moving on to "If We Never Meet Again".

So on my fifth listening to this CD, I'd say T-Bone hit another one out of the park...