A Wonderful World

by Tony Bennett, k.d. lang

Overview

Tony Bennett has sung with k.d. lang previously, notably on his MTV Unplugged album, and the two have meshed well together, largely because of lang's willingness to sublimate herself to Bennett's approach. The same thing can be said of the two on this full-length duet album (which also contains solos -- Bennett is heard alone on "That's My Dream," lang on "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" and "That Lucky Old Sun [Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day]"). It isn't just that lang joins in on material more suitable to Bennett's style than to hers. This is an album on which the musicians are the members of Bennett's backup group (plus strings), recorded in Bennett's studio. But one never gets the sense that lang is restricted by the approach. She is sufficiently versatile, or chameleon-like, to sound like she's enjoying herself, just as she did earlier in her career when she was working with producer Owen Bradley in Nashville and singing traditional country. At 76, Bennett sings with an easy, casual style, never seeming to work very hard for his effects, and lang, in her vocal prime, deliberately complements him, though she never seems quite as comfortable. Although there is no indication other than an uncredited painting (by Bennett, of course) inside the CD booklet, this is a tribute album to Louis Armstrong, who recorded these songs over the course of his long career. That doesn't mean that there's a trumpet to be heard anywhere on the disc or that either of the singers tries to re-create any aspect of Armstrong's vocal style. It simply provides an organizing principle that the listener can notice or not. (Well, it's hard not to notice during the title song, with Bennett's references to "Satchmo" and "Pops.") Like Armstrong, Bennett and lang are trying to make the music sound effortless and unstudied, and to a large extent they succeed. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	11/05/2002
Label:	Columbia / Rpm Records
UPC:	0886979167827

Tracks

1. Exactly Like You
2. La Vie en Rose
3. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
4. You Can Depend on Me
5. What a Wonderful World
6. That's My Home
7. A Kiss to Build a Dream On
8. I Wonder
9. Dream a Little Dream of Me
10. You Can't Lose a Broken Heart
11. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
12. If We Never Meet Again

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tony Bennett   Primary Artist
k.d. lang   Primary Artist
Gray Sargent   Guitar
Clayton Cameron   Drums
Scott Hamilton   Sax (Tenor)
Paul Langosch   Bass
Peter Matz   Conductor
Lee Musiker   Piano,Musical Direction

Technical Credits

R. Thiele   Composer
R. Leveen   Composer
Robert Wells   Composer
Arthur Hammerstein   Composer
F.E. Miller   Composer
Charles Carpenter   Composer
Marcel Louiguy   Composer
Harry Beasley Smith   Composer
Robert Molnar   Stylist
Josh Cheuse   Design,Art Direction
Martin Kirkup   Management
Mark Seliger   Photography
Guglielmi Luis Guglielmo   Composer
Jack Reardon   Composer
Eddie Miller   Composer
Edith Giovanna Gassion   Composer
Steven Jensen   Management
Otis T. Rene Jr.   Composer
James P. Johnson   Composer
Cy Coleman   Composer
Edith Piaf   Composer
Ellie Greenwich   Composer
Beasley Smith   Composer
Fabian Andre   Composer
Charlie Carpenter   Composer
Don DeVito   A&R
Mack David   Composer
Greg Calbi   Mastering
John Turner   Composer
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Charlie Chaplin   Composer
Dudley Wilkinson   Composer
Wilbur Schwandt   Composer
Marilyn Bergman   Composer
Louis Armstrong   Composer
Leon Rene   Composer
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Sacha Distel   Composer
Sadie Vimmerstadt   Composer
Rob Mathes   Vocal Arrangement
Louis Dunlap   Composer
Jule Styne   Composer
Jules Shear   Composer
R. S. Lourgay   Composer
D. Dougherty   Composer
E. Reynolds   Composer
Otis Rene   Composer
Mike Piersante   Engineer
Raymond Leveen   Composer
Earl Hines   Composer
Tom Young   Design,Engineer
George Cory   Composer
Adolph Green   Composer
Al J. Neiburg   Composer
Brian Dozoretz   Engineer
Albert E. Brumley   Composer
Alan Bergman   Composer
George David Weiss   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
Vance Anderson   Production Coordination
Haven Gillespie   Composer
Dae Bennett   Mixing,Engineer
Danny Bennett   Management,Executive Producer
Harry Ruby   Composer
Phil Spector   Composer
Cecil Gant   Composer
T-Bone Burnett   Producer
Bert Kalmar   Composer
Jimmy McHugh   Composer
Jack Segal   Composer
Doc Daugherty   Composer
Ellis Reynolds   Composer
Carolyn Leigh   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
B. Kalmer   Composer
Geoffrey Parsons   Composer
Michael Dicesare   Stylist
Peter Matz   Orchestration
Sid Robin   Composer
Betty Comden   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
B. Smith   Composer
Bob Thiele   Composer
Irving Mills   Composer
Billy Joel   Composer
J.P. Johnson   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Lee Musiker   Arranger
Michel Legrand   Composer
Orlando Murden   Composer
Douglass Cross   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
M. David   Composer
Jeff Barry   Composer
Horace Gerlach   Composer
Ron Miller   Composer
C. Gant   Composer
H. Ruby   Composer
Bart Howard   Composer