New (Re)Issues: Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap; Erroll Garner; Jan Lundgren

Besides having just been released, the three CDs that we are reviewing today are linked by the fact that they feature three outstanding pianists. First of all, we take a look at Tony Bennett's recent collaboration with Bill Charlap in the manner of dates that the singer has cut in the past alongside Bill Evans and Ralph Sharon. Then, there is the fantastic reissue of Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea, one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, offering now the complete concert in a deluxe package and with several unreleased performances. Finally, we discuss a career-long compilation of Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren's work for the European label Fresh Sounds, which is an excellent introduction to the man and his music.

Few singers have thrived at the intersection between jazz and pop, between Birdland and Tin Pan Alley, the way that Tony Bennett has. Frank Sinatra famously ranked him high among the small group of great saloon singers, and although Ol' Blue Eyes should know, what Bennett has always been is a jazz singer who imbues even the tritest pop material with an unequivocal jazz feeling. At 89, and after cutting some commercially successful albums of duets and a collaboration with current pop star and personal friend, Lady Gaga, Bennett has just released a new album that brings to mind former LPs of his such as The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album or his work with Ralph Sharon on, for instance, Tony Sings for Two. Entitled The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (Columbia, 2015), this new CD finds Bennett in fine voice and still tirelessly championing the music from the Great American Songbook, in this case the works of Jerome Kern. In his well-written liner notes, critic Will Friedwald eloquently describes Kern as a transition figure in the world of musical theater, "a direct connection between Brahms and Charlie Parker." Similarly, Bennett is a direct link between jazz and pop, and so a collection of Kern's timeless songs—which seems to have been his idea—is definitely right up the vocalist's alley.

Besides the repertoire, the other one aspect that makes this project successful is the choice of accompaniment: pianist Bill Charlap is a sensitive accompanist who understands singers very well and who is consistently able to provide the kind of setting that Bennett's husky, rhythmic voice needs. Three selections ("All the Things You Are," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "Make Believe") hark back to Bennett's 1970s encounters with Bill Evans, as they are voice-piano duos between the vocalist and Charlap. These are, of course, among the most intimate tracks in the album, only rivaled by the four tunes ("The Last Time I Saw Paris," "Long Ago and Far Away," "The Song Is You," and "Look for the Silver Lining") on which Charlap is joined on piano by his wife, Renee Rosnes. Both pianos are perfectly intertwined here, and the overall result benefits from their mutual understanding and from the delicately lyrical way in which they accompany Bennett. The rest of selections ("Pick Yourself Up," "I Won't Dance," "Dearly Beloved," "They Didn't Believe Me," "I'm Old Fashioned," "Yesterdays," and "Nobody Else But Me") feature Charlap's trio, with the unrelated Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. As always, Bennett feels extremely comfortable in this trio setting, and there is usually room for well-constructed solos by Charlap here and there. Tony Bennett is quite possibly the greatest jazz and pop singer currently still working, and albums like this new one show off his love for great music, as well as his willingness to improve his already vast and invaluable recorded legacy.

On September 19, 1955, pianist Erroll Garner cut a live album in Carmel, California, that, after it was released under the title of Concert by the Sea, was destined to become one of jazz's best-selling records ever. The original LP amply showcased Garner's dazzling pianistics in a trio setting, with Eddie Calhoun on bass and Denzil Best on drums, but it did not feature the complete concert. Now, sixty years after the event, Columbia-Legacy has finally made available the entire gig in a deluxe digipack three-CD set that includes eleven previously unreleased tracks, new essays by Dan Morgenstern, Geri Allen, and Robin Kelley, and a fourteen-minute interview with Garner and his trio taped right after the concert. In his new liner notes, Morgenstern observes that "Garner conceived of the keyboard as a combination of a band's horn and rhythm sections, rolled into a single voice. And his uncanny sense of time, his marvelous touch, and wide-open ears made that conception come alive."

The Complete Concert by the Sea (Sony / Columbia-Legacy, 2015) is one of the best examples of this, a magic night when all planets seemed to be aligned for the creation of unforgettable jazz. From the opening version of Cole Porter's "Night and Day," it seems clear that there is a special rapport between Garner and the rest of the rhythm section, and the audience is always appreciative of the band's efforts. Whether it is an uptempo number like "It's All Right with Me," a semiclassical treatment of a ballad such as "Spring Is Here," or a Latin-flavored tune "Mambo Carmel," Garner always feels at ease to experiment with the melodies, the harmonies, and the tempi, and throughout the concert there is a sense of excitement that is simply infectious. His readings of standard ballads such as "Autumn Leaves" and "Laura" are as lush and emotive as the uptempo numbers like "Red Top" and "Caravan" are surprising and exciting, showing what a master Garner was at the keyboard. This is a milestone jazz concert whose complete reissue was long overdue—too long, as a matter of fact—and it would be great news if it marked the beginning of a series of necessary Garner reissues.

And last, but definitely not least, we welcome the recent release of Jan Lundgren: A Retrospective (Fresh Sounds Records, 2015), a twelve-track compilation of Jan Lundgren's work for the Barcelona-based label, an association which goes way back to the very beginning of the Swedish pianist's recording career in the mid-1990s. On this retrospective album, we find the very talented Lundgren playing both as a session leader and as a sideman. In the former capacity, Lundgren always seems to feel most comfortable in a trio setting, driving the band forward with his characteristically classy swinging approach. As a leader, Lundgren is showcased here to great advantage via one track from his excellent album Cooking! At the Jazz Bakery (cut in Los Angeles in 1996), as well as two tunes from his tribute CD to songwriter Matt Dennis, which we have already reviewed in The Vintage Bandstand (you may find the review, along with our interview with Lundgren here). Lundgren has devoted several CDs to honoring the work of lesser-known composers from the Great American Songbook, whose compositions he reinvents from his own jazzy perspective, as in the case of Dennis's "Angel Eyes" and "Spring Isn't Spring Anymore." Retreating into the early stages of his recording career, this compilation also includes a track from his 1996 album, California Connection, a trio reading of Barney Kessel's "Swedish Pastry" with bassist Dave Carpenter and drummer Paul Kreibich.

As a sideman, Lundgren has participated in countless sessions alongside well-known musicians who made a name for themselves mostly within the confines of West Coast jazz and who are caught here at the tail end of their careers but still sounding just as good as ever. That is the case of Herb Geller, Bill Perkins, and Conte Candoli. Trumpeter Candoli appears on two cuts, "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Rockin' Chair," which are among the best on this retrospective compilation. The track with Geller is a beautiful saxophone-piano duo on the little-known Sam Coslow number "Restless," which shows what an inspired accompanist Lundgren can be. In the early years of his career, Lundgren counted on the support and mentorship of the venerable Arne Domnérus, and the two of them do a clarinet-piano duo on "Barney Goin' Easy," a mid-tempo vehicle that Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn originally fashioned for Barney Bigard. Two tracks come from a 2001 album that Lundgren made with pianist Pete Jolly: "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream" prove that Jolly and Lundgren are a perfect match and a sheer joy to listen to. In short, anyone who appreciates jazz piano needs to know Jan Lundgren, and this is undoubtedly the perfect starting point for those who wish to get introduced to his music.

Vintage Records Review Desk 2: Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett & Count Basie, Rosemary Clooney & Duke Ellington, Paul Gonsalves & Ray Nance

In this new installment of the Vintage Record Review Desk, I discuss some CDs that I have either recently purchased or rediscovered on my shelf. They include Bing Crosby's latest collection of cuts from the Kraft Music Hall, the late-fifties sessions featuring Tony Bennett and Count Basie, the 1956 album that pairs up Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington, and a 1970 gathering of Paul Gonsalves and Ray Nance. I also make a special mention of a forthcoming biography of Rosemary Clooney that will be on the market later this summer.

I have already written a fairly extensive review of Bing Crosby in the Hall (Sepia, 2013) on the Amazon.com website, which you may access here, so I will not add a great deal to what I already stated there. This is a fantastic collection of thirty rare performances taken from Bing Crosby's ten-year run as host of the extremely popular Kraft Music Hall radio show. On that show, Bing offered a concoction of music and comic banter full of ad-libbing that was then revolutionary and that turned him into one of the most popular radio personalities of the 1930s and '40s. For different reasons, Crosby never made commercial recordings of some of the songs that he sang on the show, and that is one of the reasons why this compilation is so interesting: we get to hear Bing doing wonderful renditions of classics such as Hoagy Carmichael's "I Get Along Without You Very Well," Johnny Mercer's "I Thought About You," and Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to," among many others. John Scott Trotter provides his usually attractive arrangements ably played by a studio orchestra, and Bing is at the peak of his game, in fine vocal form, and as relaxed as he always was when he sang over the airwaves. Sepia Records have done an outstanding job remastering these tracks from old acetates once stored in Trotter's basement and transferred to tape sometime in the 1960s, and so the sound quality is really satisfying bearing in mind the age of the recordings. This release has been prepared with the help of the International Club Crosby, and the very informative liner notes, which include a brief discussion of each track, were written by Malcolm Macfarlane, the editor of the ICC's Bing magazine. This is certainly a must for Crosby fans, and I do hope that Sepia see it fit to turn this release into a full-blown series, since there is enough interesting material in the vaults to do so.

Like Crosby on the Kraft Music Hall show, Tony Bennett was also at the peak of his youthful vocal powers on two sessions that he cut in 1958 and 1959 for Roulette and Columbia with the Count Basie orchestra. At the time, both Bennett and Basie were appearing at Philadelphia's Latin Casino but were under contract to different record companies, so it was decided that they would cut two separate studio albums, one for each label. Both sessions have been reissued on Together at Last, A Perfect Combination (Jasmine, 2008), which features every side known to exist. Though he was never a band singer, Bennett has always had a wonderful sense of swing, and he sounds very much at ease backed by one of the most swinging bands of all time, which at that point included jazz greats such as Thad Jones and Joe Newman (trumpet), Al Grey and Benny Powell (trombone), Freddie Green (guitar), and Sonny Payne (drums), among others. The arrangements are perfect for Bennett's voice, never obtrusive on ballads and full of rhythmic inventiveness on rhythm numbers, and the material chosen is mostly a fine selection of standards from the pens of Vincent Youmans, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Harry Warren & Al Dubin, Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz, Johnny Mercer et al. George Hulme's liner notes, as it is often the case with Jasmine's releases, are a little too brief, but at least they do contain a discography of the sessions. Jasmine has had the good sense to dispense with the fake applause and audience reaction that were overdubbed onto the original LP release, making this the definitive edition of these very enjoyable sessions.

In 1956, about two years before the Bennett-Basie summit, the studios of Columbia Records witnessed yet another magnificent collaboration, that of Rosemary Clooney and the Duke Ellington orchestra. Though this association, which produced the excellent album Blue Rose (Columbia-Legacy, 1999), might have seemed rather unlikely at first sight, the results certainly proved otherwise, as Clooney proved to be not only a fine pop singer, but also a jazz vocalist of the first order. This is also evident in the recordings she made with Benny Goodman and with Harry James, and particularly, in her outstanding series of songbook albums cut in the 1970s and '80s in a small-group jazz setting, but to my ears, her LP with Ellington represents her best work as a jazz singer. As always, Duke and Billy Strayhorn provide perfect musical settings for Clooney's voice: the arrangements are imaginative and often intricate without ever getting in the way of her lightly swinging, highly attractive voice. Rosie tackles Ellington classics such as "Sophisticated Lady," "I Let a Song Go out of My Heart," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "Mood Indigo," and "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" with ease, and all tracks are embellished by first-rate solos from Ellington's sidemen, including names such as Ray Nance and Clark Terry (trumpet), Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, and Paul Gonsalves (saxophone), and others. The indispensable Columbia-Legacy reissue includes an interesting essay by Will Friedwald, as well as two bonus tracks from the sessions ("If You Were in My Place" and "Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'") that were not included in the original album. By the way, a new biography of Rosemary Clooney, entitled Late Life Jazz: The Life and Career of Rosemary Clooney (Oxford UP), is scheduled for publication later this summer. It is co-authored by Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane (the latter wrote the liner notes of the Bing Crosby release reviewed above), and we look forward to reading it as soon as it is available.

And finally, a CD that I recently purchased as a gift for my in-laws, Scott and Susan Spinka, of Pittsboro, NC. Two of the musicians that were a part of the Ellington band during the Blue Rose sessions, Paul Gonsalves and Ray Nance, came together in August and September of 1970 in New York for the two sessions that make up the album Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin' (Black Lion, 1990). On the first of those sessions, they are joined by Raymond Fol (piano), Al Hall (bass), and Oliver Jackson (drums) and go through a very appealing selection of tunes, mostly by the Duke and Billy Strayhorn. Nance alternates between trumpet and violin and even offers a sample of his tuneful, gravelly singing on the title track of the album and on the light-hearted "I'm in the Market for You." Gonsalves plays some very lyrical, breathy tenor saxophone definitely influenced by another of the Duke's great reedmen, Ben Webster. For the second session, the group is augmented by Norris Turney (alto saxophone and flute), and the great Hank Jones replaces Fol on the piano stool. That second meeting spawned "B.P. Blues," a lovely Ellington-penned blues tune that kicks off the album, but for the most part, the numbers chosen, such as "Don't Blame Me" and a very beautiful reading of Matt Dennis's "Angel Eyes," are standards not written by Ellington or Strayhorn. The CD reissue, which reprints the original liner notes by producer Alan Bates, is rounded up by two selections ("I Cover the Waterfront" and "Stompy Jones") not included in the original LP. Although this marvelous session is currently out of print on CD, it is certainly well worth picking up a second-hand copy—that is, if one can still be found at a reasonable price!