All of this would maybe grow over the years should she stay the course in jazz. Sung by Lady Gaga they lack expressiveness, substance, and styling – things that distinguish great jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald and make them unique. The slower and somewhat quieter songs aren’t, however, the big hits on the album. And this she demonstrates particularly on the faster songs, with and without Tony Bennett, whose enthusiasm is contagious and alive and whose relaxed, soft phrasing strikingly contrasts with Lady Gaga’s wild approach. This is due to Lady Gaga, who can obviously do more than sing weird pop songs. Not only that, but in the case of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, it works surprisingly well.
![tony bennett lady gaga lush life tony bennett lady gaga lush life](https://www.umbriajazz.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/TBLG-book.jpg)
But the operative phrase that probably applies here is that nothing is impossible. There’s nothing new about songs from the American songbook being presented by a duo, as they are on ‘Cheek to Cheek.’ However, combining a jazz voice with a garish and notoriously ugly pop voice is new, and fairly blatant. And along with these artists are numerous sworn to jazz studio musicians, among them tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and until the beginning of July, the late flute virtuoso Paul Horn. Joining the party are jazz trumpeter Brian Newman, who has a friendly relationship with Lady Gaga, and his New York jazz quintet. Playing on ‘Cheek to Cheek’ are the members of Bennett’s quartet – Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Marshall Wood, and Harold Jones – along with pianist Tom Lanier. What you need, besides a voice trained in swing, is a band of competent musicians. He has successfully done this for decades. There is no one better than Tony Bennett for bringing songs from the great American songbook back to life and providing the spark again and again. Anyway, while it’s almost too good to be true, it’s absolutely heartwarming nonetheless. Whether the story is true, or just clever marketing, remains to be seen. That said, we next find the two of them together in a New York studio, standing in front of the mics, producing the collaborative album, ‘Cheek to Cheek.’ And lo and behold, no more talk of a crisis of the spirit. And best of all there was the outstretched hand of Tony Bennett. Lady Gaga must leave her existence as an art object and exit the self-created world where she has been extremely successful, at least for some time, to find solace and healing in the real, down-to-earth, world of jazz. Most importantly, he showed her the only safe way out of this crisis of spirit.
![tony bennett lady gaga lush life tony bennett lady gaga lush life](https://img.kapook.com/u/kantana/350_12.jpg)
You can’t help but wonder, ‘what’s going on here?’ Why this collaborative album from two such contrasting personalities and singers and why is it devoted to highlights from the great American songbook? Supposedly because Lady Gaga was stuck in a deep existential crisis when she encountered Tony Bennett, the greatest singer on this planet, who consoled her, and being flattered by the compliment, became an extremely gallant father figure to her. A twenty eight year old pop singer, with a reputation for being more of an art product than an artist, rushes outside the world of pop, to meet Tony Bennett for this album-Tony Bennett, who as a seasoned eighty eight year old jazz singer, showered with Grammys, is 180 degrees from Lady Gaga.