Perhaps one of the more unlikely duos to enjoy chart success in recent years, Lady Gaga and jazz legend Tony Bennett bonded over a love of jazz standards that eventually saw them release their first album of duets together, Cheek to Cheek, back in 2014. Last night, they taped a television special that will air on PBS later this fall.Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett’s Love for Sale: What You Need To Know Earlier this month, Gaga surprised the Montreal Jazz Festival audience by joining Bennett on stage when he was performing at the famed jazz festival. Recently, Bennett and Gaga surprised the student body at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a NYC public arts high school founded by Tony Bennett, when they spoke and performed for the school on the last day of classes in June. “The Lady is A Tramp” was the result of that endeavour and conversations began about collaborating on a jazz project. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga first met backstage in 2011 after the two performed at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City and Bennett asked Lady Gaga to sing a duet with him on his DUETS II album that he was beginning to record. “Creating this album with Lady Gaga has been a beautiful experience as she is a fantastic singer and I am hoping that all her fans will embrace this music and swing along with it.” Photographer Steven Klein contributed the photographs and spearheaded the artistic design for the album packaging as well as for the first official image released from Cheek To Cheek , which is featured on the “Anything Goes” cover art.
“I have been singing the Great American Songbook my entire career and all along forging a bridge between pop and jazz music,” said Bennett. We made an album of jazz classics, but it has a modern twist.” I’ve been singing jazz since I was a child and really wanted to show the authentic side of the genre. It was important to Tony that this was a jazz record. Of this new project Lady Gaga commented, “Cheek To Cheek came out of a very organic friendship and relationship that Tony and I have built over the years and it truly was a collaborative effort. Jazz soloists on selected tracks include tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and flutist Paul Horn, who passed away earlier this month. Jazz trumpeter Brian Newman, a long-time friend and colleague of Lady Gaga appears on the album as well with his NYC based jazz quintet. Recorded in New York City, the record took over a year to complete and features jazz musicians associated with both artists including members of Bennett’s quartet, Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones and Marshall Wood as well pianist Tom Lanier. Each song was handpicked by the artists, and the album features classic selections from the Great American Songbook including “Anything Goes”, “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)", “Sophisticated Lady”, “Lush Life” and the record’s title track, “Cheek To Cheek”. Cheek To Cheek features classic jazz standards sung by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in a combination of vocal duets and solo performances. Cheek to Cheek represents a collaboration between two legendary musical artists spanning the generations to celebrate jazz music.
An accompanying studio video featuring “Anything Goes” and footage from the recording sessions along with moments during the making of Cheek to Cheek is currently available on YouTube and VEVO. The first taste of this new music is the classic Cole Porter song, “Anything Goes”, available today on iTunes (/CheekToCheek) and other digital retailers. TONY BENNETT & LADY GAGA: CHEEK TO CHEEK ALBUM OF CLASSIC JAZZ STANDARDS TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 23ĭebut Song “Anything Goes” Available Now on iTunesĪccompanying Studio Video Live on YouTube and VEVO (Toronto, ON – 29 July 2014) - The long-awaited collaborative jazz album from Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, Cheek To Cheek, will be released via Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company on September 23.