Last night at Radio City Music Hall, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga had one thing in common: they were better on the quieter numbers. For Tony the reason had something to do with song choice, it was so much more a pleasure to hear him on relatively deep songs from the Great American Songbook like “Stranger In Paradise” or the Duke Ellington “Solitude”, than on obvious hard swing at “Steppin’ Out With My Baby”, we preferred him slow and sweet but more important different. For all it many pleasures, some of these songs are awful moldy. “Anything Goes”, “Cheek To Cheek”, “I’ve Got The World On A String” -how many times can we hear them before shrugging?
Lady Gaga has a different problem. I am the only person I know who gave the Bennett-Gaga collaboration Cheek To Cheek, a complete pan. Gaga did many things right on the album, her enthusiasm and her phrasing, her complete rapport with Bennett, her attitude and her reinvention after her (excellent) ARTPOP bombed, made her a crossover superstar like Elvis Presley circa “It’s Now Or Never”. But she couldn’t sing em. I don’t mean she couldn’t sing em compared to Ella or Billie or Rosemary Clooney, I mean she couldn’t sing em compared to Nellie McKay or Kat Edmonson. Her voice grates on the Great American Song Book in ways it doesn’t on her dance material, her voice isn’t rich enough. As former New York Post writer Dan Aquilante once wrote, Tony Bennett speaks in melody, Lady Gaga screeches in melody. The louder she sings the less there is to her voice and on the evenings nadir and then some, she rammed her way through the sexually intoxicating “Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered” -the song when it is sung right, you can feel the singers desire, I dare any man to maintain an erection if a woman came on to you like this. Every subtle touch in the lyric is hammered at you. How could she not give herself to a couplet like “I’ll sing to him, each spring to him and worship the trousers that cling to him”? You can rush it. Just as bad was her take on a classic Katherine Hepburn sang better, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby”. Tony and Gaga sang it together and Bennett went from a whisper to declaration and Gaga kept on belting it.
There were two and a half bands on stage, Bennett took his solos with his own Tony Bennett quartet and Lady Gaga with The Brian Newman Quarter and a 40 piece orchestra played with both of them. Brian took the evenings best solo, a haunting trumpet on “Everytime We Say Goodbye” and Bennett’s guitarist Gray Sargent accompanied him on the mic closed “Fly Me To The Moon” -very tactile and close to his voice, a minimal ringing chord like a tug at Tony’s arm. You see the drummer there? That’s Count Basie’s former drummer Harold Jones.
There were many good songs, I would say 20 out 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. On Lady Gaga’s best moments, a perfect version of “Lush Life” and one of the most glorious takes on “Everytime We Say Goodbye”, with Gaga not reaching for the rafters, she settles into a beautiful mood, too Gaga to be reflective, it is still a hyperkinetic brain telling itself to sing slowly, it is still filled with intelligence. “Lush Life” is all started downward roll and “Everytime We Say Goodbye” – Gaga called the Cole Porter classic debatably one of the greatest songs ever written and if you take out the debate, I agree. People have complained about Gaga interrupting some of the songs to talk to her audience. I don’t see it as a problem, indeed I think it is one way to refresh the songs. And while I think her reading of the song, the saying goodbye a sense of loss similar to the way you can lose yourself, is the real debate, the pay off was a glorious high. Nearly as good and she belted it as well was “La Vie En Rose”, which garnered her a standing ovation and for good reason.
The evening began with three songs off Cheek To Cheek, and the duo alternated solos till a terrific three song finaled, 105 minutes of American pop.The duo didn’t sing that many of the 32 songs together and they are both better for it. Bennett sings circles round Gaga, at nearly 89 years of age, the man hasn’t lost his voice and singing “Fly Me To The Moon” with all the mics off, he proved he could still fill a hall and with ease. Everything you can want in a singer Bennett was last night, his voice has range and more important a depth of feeling, he can, simply by singing it, fill his material (“I don’t play new songs because they aren’t as good” he claimed) with meaning. He has the ease on stage only half a century and more can provide. He doesn’t push you or beg you, he leaves you to come to him. I’ve seen him countless times and I have never seen him close to anything less than great. Before singing “Smile” he mentions receiving a letter of thanks from Charlie Chaplin. CHARLIE CHAPLIN. And on the evenings finest moment he delivered (performed with Aretha Franklin on his Duets album) “How Do You Keep A Song From Fading”. A sublime showstopper and yes, he is right, the song never does fade when it is this great.
When you wonder what rock took away from us, it took away Tony and Dean and Frank and Sammy, like classical and jazz and rock and roll itself, the music got marginalized, swing’s vocal dexterity and musical complexity became a specialty act. Bennett is a lifeline to the past, hell we don’t even have Bobby Short anymore, it is all gone replaced by Michael Bublé and his elk of well meaning duffers. So just because we still have Tony well enough, as well as ever actually, to perform, it is beyond a treat to be able to hear him do so. Lady Gaga doesn’t give him the youth vote but what she gives him is a foil, and a friend, and seeing him through her eyes, a sexual dynamic. What he gives Gaga can not be overestimated. I might not like her voice but she certainly isn’t lost here, she can certainly sing these songs and when she brings this gift back home to her own songwriting the effects of both studying deeply the way these songs are constructed and how to sing them, should lead her to new heights.
Consider Gaga Elvis Presley singing with Frank SInatra, she is at a wonderful place in her career, from weirdo pop art damaged dance weirdo, she has broken through (seven costume changes tonight, every time she left the stage to Bennett) to a world of classic entertainment. I might not like her voice here but I respect anybody who can sing cheek to cheek with Tony.
Tony Bennett And Lady Gaga – B+
Setlist
ANYTHING GOES
CHEEK TO CHEEK
THEY ALL LAUGHED
STRANGER IN PARADISE
SING YOU SINNERS
NATURE BOY
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS
THE GOOD LIFE
BANG BANG
BEWITCHED, BOTHERED & BEWILDERED
FIREFLY
SMILE
WHEN YOU’RE SMILING
STEPPIN’ OUT
FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE
I WON’T DANCE
LADY’S IN LOVE WITH YOU
SOLITUDE
I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE
LUSH LIFE
I’VE GOT THE WORLD ON A STRING
IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS
LA VIE EN ROSE
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING
LET’S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE
EV’RY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE
WHO CARES
FLY ME TO THE MOON
SAN FRANCISCO
BUT BEAUTIFUL
THE LADY IS A TRAMP
IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING
