• The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album (1975) brings together two legends of modern music. Featuring just vocal and piano, without any additional musicians, the two artists selected the songs and worked out the arrangements for what was to become the first of two albums together
• Bennett and Evans first met in 1962, when both were performing (though not yet together) in a special jazz event on The White House lawn (during the Kennedy years). It was the jazz and theatre singer Annie Ross, who had known both men for many years by the early '70s, who supposedly came up with the idea that Bennett and Evans should do an album together.
• In June 1975, they finally got together. Tony later related: "I said to Bill, 'Listen, it will just be the two of us – you don't bring your cronies and I won't bring mine!'" Bennett and Evans selected the tunes, worked out the arrangements semi-spontaneously, and picked the final takes to be used. The music is some of the most heartfelt and human in that rarely entered realm where jazz and pop music merge. Their follow-up album, Together Again, was released in 1977.
• This 180-gram reissue was cut from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI, and comes packaged in a tip-on jacket with Obi.
Tony Bennett was born in Astoria, Queens in 1926 and developed a love of music from listening to Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and James Duarte on the radio. Bennett enlisted in the army during World War II and performed in military bands there; after returning to America, his big break came in 1949 when comedian Bob Hope heard his performance and invited him to perform at the Paramount Theatre.
Bennett's initial success came through chart-topping singles in the early 1950s, such as "Because of You" and "Rags to Riches." Since then, Bennett has received 19 GRAMMY Awards.
Bill Evans began working and recording with Tony Scott and George Russell in 1955. His subtly swinging, lucidly constructed solos with these leaders quickly attracted attention, and provided Evans with an opportunity to begin recording under his own name. He spent several months during 1958 in Miles Davis's band, where he played alongside John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and became a central figure in Davis's shift to modal improvisation.
Throughout his career Evans remained uncommonly inspired, able to reach stunning emotional depths with a quiet lucidity that was unmatched. His lyrical melodic inventions, intricate phrasing, complex voicings, and beautiful touch remain as unmistakable influences on pianists more than 40 years after his death.
