There were many good songs, I would say 20 our of 32 were fine but while it is good enough for a good evening, it isn’t enough for a great evening., and I just think, right person, wrong song.
Bennett is a genius and Lady Gaga had the tools of genius without the scope, and I actively disliked their album of standards when it was first released. With the duo playing New York this week, this is nothing much, but not terrible either. In the end, it is all a little whatever because Gaga lacks a certain sweetness to her voice, it isn’t abrasive but it isn’t an instrument built for the Great American Songbook – B-
two New York icons together at a New York landmark for a show that in 20 years (I’ll be… 77!!) will be a legend… hard to deny. I remember seeing Mel Torme and Peggy Lee at Carnegie Hall in the 90s and today it feels like it happened to someone else, it is so beyond the realm of possibilities… and I feel that way about Bennett all the time now
Gaga and Bennett in at #1 on the album charts? 131K units moved. I am now officially the worst prognosticator since that dead ringer groundhog deBlas dropped… Otherwise, the charts no longer tell you whether music is god or bad, anything released in any given week that sells over 50K will be on the charts. Essentially, it is ten albums that have been released recently
Lady Gaga, who I am sick to death of, doesn’t simply jump the Shark here, but climbs on top of it, squeezes it between her legs and rides it like Slim Pickens at the end of “Dr. Strangelove” and in the worst is yet to come mode, Bennett delivers his single worst vocal performance of all time
Meanwhile, opening act Tony’s daughter Antoinette, rehearsing for her “Memories Of My Father” concert at Cafe Carlyle in a decade or so, might have been sucked or not. I heard some chuckling here and there
Good Morning Good Morning – Mickey Dolenz – Off the Remember album if you think a flute has no place on the Lennon classic, think again ; Dolenz is in superb voice and it captures some of the timed weirdness of Lennon’s take on the straight life – B+
Watching The Wheels – John Lennon – This songs as a signpost and it reads the future of a great songwriter, able to turn the most personal aspects of his life and politics into a share . This is the acoustic demo featured on the end credits of “Funny People” – A
