GAZETTE STAFF / NEW  YORK CITY

by Ernest Barteldes

irst and foremost, let me tell you here that I am not the regular Tony Bennett fan, so this review might not read exactly specialized. After all, like many of my generation I was introduced to Tony by his MTV Unplugged album, which many considered, purists might argue, his "comeback to pop" album

Apart from his regular hits ("I Left My Heart in San Francisco") and the above mentioned album , the only songs I'd really heard of his were the ones in which he either guested in other peoples' albums (Sinatra Duets , Elvis Presley Tribute)or in movie soundtracks such as My Best Friend's Wedding.

This new release caught my attention when I spotted an article about it in which Bennett would be performing, on his new release, alongside some of my favorite performers, such as Sheryl Crow, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt and Ray Charles - which made this one a must-have for my extremely eclectic CD collection.

I raided the stores last weekend, and found it at a certain chain store in Greenwich Village for a very affordable price. I then walked into my favorite wine store in that neighborhood (no names please - I'd like to keep that one my personal secret) and purchased a bottle of red wine so I could appreciate the album accordingly.

Glass in hand, I turned on my CD player and went on to check out the record.

The first track is a great delight, in which Bennett duets with jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall in Alright, Okay, You Win - a moody tune which is quite a delight for the listener's ears. The track is nicely followed by the similarly-sounding Everyday I Have The Blues, which Tony shares with Stevie Wonder. The song, which is regularly performed by B.B. King, receives a lounge treatment which sounds great in the performers' interpretation.

One of the strongest performances is Good Morning, Heartache (a Billie Holiday hit), in which Sheryl Crow pours her soul out as if she had written the song herself - her interpretation alongside Bennett still gives me goose bumps even after several hearings.

Other great moments are Evenin', which features the great Ray Charles - who still sounds great after all these years( note: I recently saw him at The City Center in New York City, and he seems quite in shape). Stormy Weather (a classic blues song that has been recorded by various artists, including the late Stevie Ray Vaughan) is extremely well sung with Natalie Cole - but that is no surprise. Natalie is in her vocal prime, and she steals Tony's scene on that track.

Tony delivers a strong duet with K.D. Lang on Keep The Faith, Baby. Lang appeared on Bennett's MTV Unplugged album and recently performed live with him at The Radio City Music Hall, and they finally have a studio collaboration.

New York State of Mind becomes poignant in retrospect after the Sept. 11th attacks, but the song has had stronger versions. Billy Joel, the song's author, shares the microphone with Bennett in a dignifying way, but their collaboration is a little too subdued for me. Nevertheless, New York State of Mind is a great song, and its inclusion on this album is quite appropriate.

Worthy of mention is also I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues, which features guitarist/singer Bonnie Raitt. Bonnie still owes her fans a straight blues album, and rare moments such as this one become instant classics.

I am a great fan of B.B. King, but I think that the choice of Let The Good Times Roll was not a good one. After all, the song has been featured in quite a few recent albums in the last few years(B.B. King's Deuces Wild and Let The Good Times Roll, Pavarotti and Friends for the Children of Guatemala and Kosovo), and the duet sounds quite uninspired given the other existing versions.

Another weak moment is Blue and Sentimental, in which Tony duets with Kay Starr. Ms. Starr sounds tired and barely sings in this track - which seems to me more like a Bennett tribute to her than anything else.

There are a few tracks in which Bennett sings solo. The tracks sound fine, but given the nature of the rest of the album, those songs seem a bit out of place.

The album closes with Robert Cray's Playin' With My Friends, which all his guests participate. The song was originally recorded as a duet with Cray and B.B. King. In this blues/jazz version, everyone sings a verse or two, with solos by Tony Bennett's backing band plus B.B. King and Stevie Wonder. Quite a party indeed.

Despite the weak tracks, Playin' With My Friends is a great listening experience which can be repeated over and over without sounding tired. An evidence of that is that I have , as of this writing, heard the album at least eight times.

Bottom line: a must-have for any blues fan - even if you are, like me, not exactly a Tony Bennett fan.

For more information on Tony Bennett, visit http://www.tonybennett.net/