Duets II

by Tony Bennett

Overview

Tony Bennett's first album of celebrity duets (2006's Duets: An American Classic) featured an impressive cast of superstars answering the call from the dean of pop vocalists, but the arrangements were overly safe -- virtually all of them ballads with soft strings or brassy finger-snappers. Duets II follows the first by five years and features, surprisingly, a cast just as star-laden, but also arrangements that are much more dynamic, and suitable for each song and its participants. (Marion Evans, a veteran whose career goes back nearly as far as Bennett's, handles the charts for a few of the best here.) Bennett, as ever in splendid voice and impeccable groove, laughs and trades lines with stars half his age (like John Mayer), or in the case of Lady Gaga, six decades younger, and clearly makes them so comfortable in this setting that it would be easy to believe that jazz vocals were their home. Standard fare yields standard results for the likes of Michael Buble and Josh Groban, but all of these songs have something to contribute. Bennett is especially tender and expressive with k.d. lang on "Blue Velvet" (the two had already collaborated on a full album), and he clearly enjoys his pairing with Willie Nelson for "On the Sunny Side of the Street." (Nelson takes a guitar solo, and shows some of the vocal shadings that during the '60s made him as expressive a vocalist as Bennett.) The album wisely covers all bases, including stars of country music (Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill), R&B (Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse), and one-shots for rock & roll (Sheryl Crow), Latin music (Alejandro Sanz), and classical (Andrea Bocelli). Celebrity musical pairings rarely lead to innovation or excitement, but Duets II is an enjoyable celebration of what Tony Bennett has meant to pop music, and what he can bring out in any star vocalist he steps up to the microphone with. ~ John Bush

Product Details

Release Date:	10/04/2011
Label:	Music On Vinyl
UPC:	8713748982713
Rank:	5757

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tony Bennett   Primary Artist
Andrea Bocelli   Primary Artist
k.d. lang   Primary Artist
Carrie Underwood   Primary Artist
Norah Jones   Primary Artist
Michael Buble   Primary Artist
Aretha Franklin   Primary Artist
Lady Gaga   Primary Artist
Natalie Cole   Primary Artist
Sheryl Crow   Primary Artist
Faith Hill   Primary Artist
John Mayer   Primary Artist
Mariah Carey   Primary Artist
Josh Groban   Primary Artist
Queen Latifah   Primary Artist
Willie Nelson   Primary Artist,Guitar
Alejandro Sanz   Primary Artist
Amy Winehouse   Primary Artist
Richard Locker   Celli
Jeanne LeBlanc   Celli
Bob Millikan   Trumpet
Keith O'Quinn   Trombone (Tenor)
Andy Snitzer   Sax (Tenor)
Bob Carlisle   French Horn
Stephanie Cummins   Celli
Karen Dreyfus   Viola
Desiree Elsevier   Viola
Carol Pool   Violin
Harold Jones   Drums
Lee Musiker   Piano,Musical Direction
Hollis "Bud" Burridge   Trumpet
David Gold   Viola
George Flynn   Trombone (Bass)
Gray Sargent   Guitar
Gordon Gottlieb   Percussion
Lorenza Ponce   Violin
Avril Brown   Violin
Katherine Fong   Violin
Craig Mumm   Viola
Marshall Wood   Bass
Roger Rosenberg   Sax (Baritone)
Cornelius Dufallo   Violin
Marion Evans   Conductor
Adrian Benjamin   Viola
Yuri Vodovoz   Violin
Jonathan Dinklage   Violin
Matthew Lehmann   Violin
Diane Barere   Celli
Grace Paradise   Harp
Arturo Sandoval   Soloist,Trumpet
Charles Pillow   Clarinet,Clarinet (Bass)
Dave Mann   Sax (Alto),Sax (Tenor)
Sean Carney   Violin
Lawrence Feldman   Sax (Alto)
David Finck   Bass
Entcho Todorov   Violin
Xiao-Dong Wang   Violin
Ronald Janelli   Sax (Baritone)
Tony Kadleck   Trumpet
Marc Goldberg   Bassoon
Tim Cobb   Bass
Lou Marini   Sax (Alto)
Ann Leathers   Violin
Karen Karlsrud   Violin
Elena Barere   Violin
Larry Farrell   Trombone (Tenor)
John Owens   Trumpet
Jorge Calandrelli   Conductor
Pamela Sklar   Flute,Piccolo
Monica Gerard   Viola
Katherine Livolsi   Violin
Mike Davis   Trombone (Tenor)
Katherine Fink   Flute,Piccolo
Philip Myers   French Horn
Diane Lesser   Oboe,Horn (English)
Mark Phaneuf   Sax (Tenor)
Vincent Lionti   Viola
Laura McGinnis   Violin
Ben Herman   Percussion
Elizabeth Lim   Violin
Yurika Mok   Violin
Nancy Wu   Violin
Todd Low   Viola
Wen Qian   Violin
Una Tone   Violin
Judy Witmer   Viola
Barbara Jostlein   French Horn
Catherine Sim   Violin
Alissa Smith   Viola
Dave Eggar   Celli
Yoon Kwon   Violin
Erik Charlston   Percussion
Charlie Pillow   Sax (Tenor)
Ann Scherer   French Horn
Ellen Westermann   Celli
Ming Feng Hsin   Violin
Sanguen Eanet   Violin
Shirien Taylor Donahue   Violin
Thomas Jostlein   French Horn

Technical Credits

Jerome Kern   Composer
Ogden Nash   Composer
Bernie Wayne   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Bob Russell   Composer
Natalie Cole   Duet
Sheryl Crow   Duet
Isham Jones   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Frank Eyton   Composer
Faith Hill   Duet
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Charles DeForest   Composer
Lorenz Hart   Composer
Marilyn Bergman   Composer
Lee Morris   Composer
John Mayer   Duet
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Leslie Bricusse   Composer
Mariah Carey   Duet
Josh Groban   Duet
Rob Mounsey   Composer
Rob Mathes   Composer
Phil Ramone   Producer
Marion Evans   Arranger
Philippe Saisse   Composer
Queen Latifah   Duet
Michel Legrand   Composer
Tom Young   Live Sound
George Forrest   Composer
Willie Nelson   Duet
Alejandro Sanz   Duet
Alan Bergman   Composer
Amy Winehouse   Duet
Gus Kahn   Composer
Vance Anderson   Production Coordination
Dae Bennett   Mixing,Engineer,Producer
Danny Bennett   Executive Producer
Kurt Weill   Composer
Andrea Bocelli   Duet
Anthony Newley   Composer
Jimmy McHugh   Composer
Jacques Demy   Composer
Edward Heyman   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
Gene Lees   Composer
Johnny Green   Composer
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Robert Sour   Composer
k.d. lang   Duet
Carrie Underwood   Duet
Norah Jones   Duet
Michael Buble   Duet
Aretha Franklin   Duet
Armando Manzanero   Composer
Gordon Jenkins   Composer
Robert Wright   Composer
Jorge Calandrelli   Arranger
Lady Gaga   Duet
Norman Gimbel   Composer
John Green   Composer
Jill Dell'Abate   Contractor,Production Manager
Josh Cheuse   Photography,Art Direction
Nicolas Essig   Assistant Engineer
Alessandro Perrotta   Assistant Engineer
Brian Chirlo   Assistant Engineer
Adam Bancroft   Assistant Engineer
Dustin Higgins   Engineer
Kelsey Bennett   Photography