Tony Bennett & Bill Evans--" We'll Be Together Again"---In the 1970's, two jazz influenced artists collaborated on a memorable 2 CD recording project highlighting the best of The Great American Songbook. Bennett had already performed with a number of notable jazz musicians and jazz influenced composers and arrangers like Johnny Mandel with whom Bennett has had a long and fruitful collaboration. Bennett has said that there was a minimum of planning and preparation with Evans improvising off a long list of possible standards and Bennett responding with heightened improvisational performances. Bennett has stated that " Evans played like an ocean in a storm." and the intensity engendered by Evans imaginative creations can be clearly heard in his own playing as well as Bennett's receptive and emotionally charged performances.
The song is a classic 1945 tune " We'll Be Together Again " written by Carl Fischer and Frankie Laine ( Fischer was Laine's long time accompanist.) It has been described as " A great illustration of pop ballad sophistication and its difference in character from a theatre ballad." Interestingly, the release or bridge, which usually takes on a different form and style from the main chorus, actually uses material of the refrain in the release. This is an unusual but welcome deviation from accepted song writing practice.
The song has been recorded by well over 100 artists with Sinatra's version in the iconic "
" Songs for Swinging Lovers" recording especially notable. That version had Sinatra backed by Nelson Riddle and a large orchestra. However, Bennett and Evans do equally well in their highly empathic two person, one- voice version..
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW5eE_KRVIQ
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