I can just hear you all. ‘Come on, Duke,
\nTony-freakin’-BENNETT?’<\/p>\n
Yep. Tony Bennett is, frankly, one of the greatest jazz and
\nswing vocalists of all time. With astonishingly vocal longevity, he
\nhas remained fresh and relevant while many of his peers have burned
\nout, dropped out of sight, or are just no longer with us. Bennett
\nhas the rare gift of making whatever he sings moving, interesting,
\nand new. When you combine his vocals with the songs of the peerless
\nDuke Ellington, you have the major potential for some serious
\nmagic. Regardless of your preferred musical preference, a bit of
\nthis should do you good.<\/p>\n
But how good, exactly, is it? Let’s be realistic; it’s tough to
\ncover Duke Ellington, because, well, everyone in this genre has as
\none point or another, and you’re going to get compared to others.
\nSo how does Bennett do?<\/p>\n
The answer is pretty well, but not perfect. The oddest thing
\nabout
\nHot And Cool<\/i> is that Bennett actually does better on the
\nlesser-known (lesser-known here is a relative term, y’all)
\nEllington pieces. The CD starts off with the swinging “Do Nothin’
\n(Till You Hear From Me)”, and Bennett nails it perfectly. Same with
\n“Azure”, “In A Sentimental Mood”, “She’s Got It Bad (And That Ain’t
\nGood)”, and the bass-driven smoky swing of “In A Mellow Tone”. A
\nlittle less impressive is his version of “Don’t Get Around Much
\nAnymore” — an Ellington classic, to me Bennett’s version seems to
\ndrag a little. Maybe I can’t help but compare it to Chicago’s
\ndynamite cover from their
\nNight And Day<\/i> CD. I’m also not crazy about Bennett’s version
\nof “Caravan”; one of my favorite Ellington works, Bennett sounds
\nforced and a bit drawn at times. Finally, the constant ‘drop-ins’
\nof a few bars of “Take The A Train” really got on my nerves; by the
\nend of the CD, I found myself really wishing that Bennett would
\njust
\nsing<\/b> the damn thing.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, these are minor concerns, and perhaps my personal
\nbiases are showing. Certainly, Bennett closes
\nHot And Cool<\/i> with a bang, nailing “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If
\nIt Ain’t Got That Swing)” with a driving, bright, and stylish take
\non this classic. A good closing number will forgive myriad sins on
\na jazz CD, and
\nHot And Cool<\/i> delivers in style.<\/p>\n
\nHot And Cool<\/i> succeeds as a Tony Bennett album and a Duke
\nEllington tribute. There may be occasional moments where it slips a
\nlittle, but on the whole it’s a good CD and worth looking into for
\nfans of either artist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6907],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37701","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tony-bennett","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37701"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}