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Chicago Tribune Cheek To Cheek Review


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Can a 28-year-old pop star and an 88-year-old jazz singer make beautiful music together?

More specifically, does the partnership of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett on their new duets album, "Cheek to Cheek," amount to something more than a stunt?

The answers are apparent on nearly every track of "Cheek to Cheek," which shows the seriousness of intent one expects from Bennett and a vocal assurance in jazz-swing idioms one might not have anticipated from Lady Gaga (not withstanding her lively duet with Bennett on "The Lady is a Tramp" from his earlier "Duets II" album).
 

There's no question that the singers establish a bona fide artistic partnership on "Cheek to Cheek," an album that starts off a bit breathlessly but soon digs into substantive music-making at a variety of tempos and moods. Better still, Lady Gaga meets Bennett on his musical territory, not the other away around, the accompanying jazz instrumentalists underscoring the point.

This is not an attempt, in other words, to dilute jazz traditions for Lady Gaga fans with other musical priorities. To the contrary, "Cheek to Cheek" serves up the real thing, start to finish. If you didn't know the name of the vocalist and the kind of publicity that surrounds her, you'd surely say: Who's that swing singer, and why haven't I heard of her before?
 

Not that Lady Gaga turns in anything remotely resembling scat singing, the wordless improvisations that jazz vocal virtuosos often dispatch, evoking the solo flights of a brilliant trumpeter or saxophonist. But you don't have to excel in scat to be a real jazz singer, as Billie Holiday and Bennett himself proved long, long ago.

Instead, Lady Gaga and Bennett simply address repertoire that jazz musicians have played for ages, recasting it to suit the distinctiveness of each of their instruments. Heard in a jazz environment, Lady Gaga demonstrates that she has loads of voice and a natural feel for swing rhythm, if occasionally a bit much vibrato. Bennett continues to defy the passage of time, his control of phrase, tone and vocal nuance a marvel for a singer of any age, let alone one with a 90th birthday not so far away.
 

Perhaps surprisingly, the two turn in some of their best work in duo passages. Or at least there's genuine pleasure in hearing the youthful radiance of Lady Gaga's soprano, especially her soaring high notes, alongside Bennett's characteristically grainy, gravelly sound. Satin and grist, youth and age, insouciance and experience come together here in ways not often encountered in everyday life.

"Cheek to Cheek" is being released in standard and deluxe versions, the latter including 15 songs compared to 11 and emerging as the preferred album by far (additional bonus tracks are available on iTunes). But even the core material that appears on both versions makes for engaging listening.

Each opens with Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" and Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek," immediately establishing the joyousness of Lady Gaga's approach and the enduring exuberance of Bennett's. Time and again, Lady Gaga reaches for the stratospheric note and bang-on hits it, Bennett anchoring the music from his darker, deeper registers. Both singers revel in swing rhythm, eager to buoy from one offbeat to the next and the next. They achieve considerable energy.

But it's when things slow down that you can hear what these artists are capable of as interpreters, alone and together.

Lady Gaga's voice turns dusky in the opening phrases of "Nature Boy," revealing subtle colors and delicacies of inflection that are worth savoring. Bennett responds with a tenderness and depth of feeling that enriches his partner's work and deepens our understanding of the song. When they come together in the coda, with gorgeous orchestral accompaniment, they create an emotionally charged moment unique to them.

"But Beautiful" long has been a key Bennett ballad, meaning that Lady Gaga has taken a chance by joining him on it. As expected, Bennett commands attention, expressing profundities on life and love. But Lady Gaga contributes, too, floating a phrase at one moment, evoking Nancy Wilson in another.

No doubt Lady Gaga takes her biggest risk of the venture singing solo in Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," one of the most revered and demanding ballads in the jazz repertoire. Some listeners might find her reading hyper-emotional, and indeed she lavishes too much vibrato on select notes. But she clearly has studied the dramatic structure of the song and conveys it eloquently. Yes, there's a great deal of Ella Fitzgerald's gauzy sound in this "Lush Life" and elsewhere on the album. Yet there's also a gutsiness to Lady Gaga's interpretation, a willingness to lay emotions bare, that cannot be denied.

Bennett, too, gets his solo moments, nowhere more effectively than in Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." The song may have long since been relegated to clich̩ by too many generations of bad lounge singers, but Bennett's raw, searing account Рwith a devastating finale Рdeepens his catalog of profound balladry.

It's a pity that those who get the standard version of the album won't hear Bennett's autumnal reflections in "Don't Wait Too Long" or Lady Gaga's plaintive, Ella-inspired account of Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye." On the other hand, there's no loss in missing "Goody Goody," included on the deluxe version but basically a one-joke routine in which Bennett sings and Lady Gaga speaks.

But that's the rare misfire in "Cheek to Cheek," which amounts to so much more than a marquee commercial partnership. Lady Gaga and Bennett have created a jazz album that will reach far wider than most and, more important, has something valuable to say

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-lady-gaga-tony-bennett-gaga-cheek-to-cheek-20140919-column.html

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Chicago Tribune slays once again. And to be honest, this is actually someone who is considered an expert in jazz and really knows what he's talking about. This is a huge endorsement coming from him. Our fan base should be proud.

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YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS

 

Get that universal acclaim gagz  :legend:  :legend:  :legend:  :legend:


They gave 50 for ARTPOP and 63 for Born This Way.

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ItsTommyBitch

Omg... that is a REVIEW! :omg:

 

Like, it focused on the music, the technicality, EVERYTHING :legend:

 

 

Slay a bit Chicago Tribute :whitney:

私自身もこの世の中も誰もかれもが, どんなに華やかな人生でも, どんなに悲惨な人生でも, いつかは変貌し, 破壊され、消滅してしまう. すべてがもともとこの世に存在しない一瞬の幻想なのだから
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