Tony Bennett & Bill Evans＜限定盤＞

現代音楽界の伝説的な2人のアーティストがヴォーカルとピアノだけで、追加のミュージシャンは一切なく、2人のアーティストが曲を選び、アレンジを練り上げたという1975年のデュオ名盤。

ベネットとエヴァンスが初めて出会ったのは1962年、ケネディ政権下のホワイトハウスの芝生広場で行われた特別なジャズ・イベントで(まだ共演はしていなかったが)演奏していた時だった。ベネットとエヴァンスが一緒にアルバムを作るべきだというアイデアを思いついたのは、70年代初頭までに2人を長年知っていたジャズ&演劇シンガーのアニー・ロスだったとされている。

1975年6月、彼らはついに一緒になった。トニーは後にこう語っている: 「君は取り巻きを連れてくるな、私も連れてこないから!」。ベネットとエヴァンスは曲を選び、半自発的にアレンジを練り、最終的に使用するテイクを選んだ。その音楽は、ジャズとポップミュージックが融合する、めったに立ち入ることのできない領域において、最もハートフルで人間的なものである。続くアルバム『Together Again』は1977年にリリースされた。

今年亡くなったベネットにとっても代表作のひとつである。

〈パーソネル〉Bill Evans (p) Tony Bennett(vo)

Having completed his relatively brief sojourn with MGM/Verve with 1973's Listen Easy, Tony Bennett was in the midst of forming his own label, Improv Records, when he made a deal with jazz pianist Bill Evans to cut two LPs, this one for Evans' label, Fantasy Records, with another to follow on Improv. The singer and his collaborator ("accompanist" does not adequately describe Evans' contribution, and in any case he received co-billing) got together in a recording studio over four days in June 1975 with no one other than the producer, Helen Keane and an engineer present, and quickly recorded one of the best albums of either's career. For Bennett, it was a dream project; for years (decades, actually), he had been balancing the demands of commerciality with his own inclinations toward jazz and affection for the songs of Broadway masters and of the Great American Songbook. Left to himself with a jazz partner, he naturally gravitated toward both interests. There were songs here that he had already recorded, but never in so unadorned and yet fully realized a fashion. Evans was an excellent accompanist, using his steady left hand to keep his singer centered, but ready, whenever the vocals were finished, to go off into his characteristically lyrical playing. Bennett could seem a bit earthbound when he came back in (he still wasn't really a jazz singer), but his obvious enthusiasm for the project, coupled with his mastery of phrasing in songs he understood perfectly made him an equal in the partnership. As far as the major-label record business was concerned, the 46-year-old singer might have been over the hill and indulging himself, but in fact he was in his prime and finally able to pursue his ambitions unfettered, and that would prove itself a major boost to his career over time. For the moment, he'd made an excellent jazz-pop hybrid in which both musicians were shown off to advantage. [The five alternate takes included as bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue of the album are, not surprisingly, more interesting for Evans' different improvisations than for anything else. But they also demonstrate that he and Bennett tried different approaches to the tunes. The album's lead-off track, "Young and Foolish," begins with both Bennett and Evans on the refrain, but the alternate take starts with Evans alone, followed by Bennett singing the song's introductory verse instead; the version runs a minute longer. The alternate take of "The Touch of Your Lips," on the other hand, is at a faster tempo and a minute shorter. None of the alternate takes actually improves on the originally released ones, but they show how well considered the album was.] ~ William Ruhlmann