Tony Bennett Says Lady Gaga's Jazz Album Will Prove She's One Of The Best
Posted by Joseph Lee on 10.29.2012
He's confident...
In an interview with Billboard, Tony Bennett said that a jazz album with Lady Gaga he is working on will "reaffirm" that she's one of the best. It's one of several projects for the singer, including a new album called Viva Duets, a book called Life Is a Gift: The Zen of Bennett and a movie also called The Zen of Bennett. Bennett and Gaga previously worked on the song "The Lady is a Tramp" together for his 2011 Duets II album. This new album will be produced by arranger/orchestrator Marion Evans.
On being called by Gaga's father Joseph Germanotta and his hopes for the jazz album: "He said she told him that 'I want to do a jazz album with Tony Bennett, a jazz album. So that will be the next album after ('Viva Duets'). It's going to really reaffirm that she's one of the best jazz singers that anyone's ever heard."
On his love of jazz: "I'm a great lover of jazz, which is strictly an American art form that was invented out of the churches of New Orleans, and then it became elongated into improvised jazz. I'm an entertainer, but I have a great affection for the great jazz artists that commit their life to just playing what they feel and being honest with what they're doing. It's a spectacular music that the world loves. We just finished three and a half months of touring all over Europe and we did quite a few big jazz festivals, and the people internationally just love American jazz and they show up and they walk away swooning over what they just heard."
On his book and film: "[They] just reaffirmed how I feel about the power of nature and...everything I've felt about my life. I've been very successful wtih the fact that from 1950 to now the audiences have never let me down and they reaffirm that they love what I do, and that creates a tremendous contentment for me. When I can make people feel that good, I walk away saying, 'Wow...' It's just the art of giving; when you give you get and you don't take. You just get from giving."
The film was put together by Bennett's son and manager Danny. It was directed by Unjoo Moon. It will be released in theaters on October 24 and on Netflix November 12. The book, which includes images of Bennett's paintings, will be published on November 20.
