Photo Credit: Kelsey Bennett; Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap Nominated for Grammy(R) Award in BEST TRADITIONAL POP VOCAL ALBUM for "THE SILVER LINING: The Songs of Jerome Kern" |
18-Time
Grammy Winner, Tony Bennett and jazz pianist Bill Charlap, were nominated for a
Grammy in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category for their jazz piano
album, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern. Released in September 2015, the album debuted
at #1 on Billboard's Traditional Jazz Album charts and has received widespread
critical acclaim. It was the first recording Bennett released after the
overwhelming success of his collaborative effort with Lady Gaga, "CHEEK TO
CHEEK." Bennett was also inducted
into DOWNBEAT magazine's Hall of Fame and was named their top Male Vocalist of
2015. Tony Bennett will celebrate his
90th Birthday next year on August 3rd.
Tony Bennett
is the only artist to successfully bridge the worlds of pop music and jazz on
an international scale for over 60 years. The Silver Lining: The Songs of
Jerome Kern becomes part of a timeless legacy of recordings that Bennett has
done throughout his career that have embraced both genres, in particular the
revered piano jazz albums that he recorded with the late Bill Evans in 1975 and
1977. Tony has become synonymous with
the pop/jazz connection and in recent years has been a mentor to contemporary
artists such as Lady Gaga and the late Amy Winehouse in encouraging them to
embrace jazz music. With his 90th
birthday less than a year away, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern
defines what makes Tony Bennett unique in the pantheon of great singers and is
a testament to the legacy that he continues to create as a recording artist and
influence in the music industry.
Over the
course of his career, Kern composed more than 700 songs, creating musical
elements used in more than 100 stage works, collaborating with the greatest
lyricists and librettists of the era including P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar
Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, E.Y. Harburg and
many others on a seemingly limitless repertoire of classic songs including "Ol'
Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Smoke Gets in
Your Eyes," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Long Ago and Far
Away" and many more.
New York
native Jerome Kern was a major force on Broadway and in Hollywood musicals in a
career that spanned more than four decades. He expanded on earlier musical
theater traditions, from vaudeville to operetta, to embrace new dance rhythms,
syncopation and jazz progressions and helped invent the modern musical
template. While many of his Broadway musicals and Hollywood musical films were
contemporary smash hits, Kern is perhaps best remembered today through revivals
of "Show Boat," one of his signature achievements.
In his liner
notes for The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, music historian Will
Friedwald describes Kern as "...the key link between the great music of
historical and contemporary classics, a direct connection between Brahms and
Charlie Parker....a key architect of a uniquely American art form that would
eventually take shape as musical theater....one of the founding fathers of a
term that Tony Bennett later coined himself, 'the Great American
Songbook.'"
"The
idea of a Kern Songbook project was Tony's," writes Will Friedwald,
"thereby placing Kern on the very short list of canonical composers (Rodgers
& Hart, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, and Cy Coleman) who
have been the beneficiaries of an entire album by Bennett. It was also
Bennett's idea to create the album in collaboration with the remarkable Bill
Charlap....who can also take a great song we all know by heart and make us feel
like we've never heard it before."
With more
than 700 Jerome Kern compositions to choose from, the set list for The Silver
Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is a distillation of essential highlights from
a boundless catalog. With these interpretations of some of Jerome Kern's finest
songs, Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap offer a definitive introduction to Kern's
music while providing a deep understanding of the abiding and universal
qualities of these songs.
Playing
alongside Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap on The Silver Lining: The Songs of
Jerome Kern are pianist Renee Rosnes (on the piano duet pieces), Peter
Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums).
Unrelated, though sharing the same last name, Peter and Kenny have been
performing with Bill Charlap for nearly two decades and pianist Renee Rosnes
has been Charlap's life partner for close to 10 years.
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