Tony Bennett, The Best Of The Improv Recordings

By Paul Casey

“For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more. There’s a feeling in back of it.”
—Frank Sinatra in Life magazine, 1965

Tony Bennett is a man with a career that is hard to fathom today, as the thought of someone gaining such longevity and prolificacy would shame even the most fervent and work intensive current artists. Six decades and counting have produced a catalogue of hits: “Rags To Riches,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “I Wanna Be Around.”

The Best of the Improv Recordings is not a Greatest Hits collection, but a specific focus on the work which came from Tony Bennett’s all too short-lived Improv label. In fact, the disc only encompasses five albums and these were the only ones Bennett recorded for the label during its existence from 1975-1977. Lacking a major distribution deal, Improv failed to turn the quality inherent in these recordings into profit. Yet, in spite of Improv’s commercial failings, these recordings allowed Bennett to follow his own muse and show why he is a major talent.

All of the tracks featured here possess many of the same qualities; they are beautifully produced and feature great vocal performances as well as a pool of considerable talent. Bennett’s work with Bill Evans on the Together Again album occupies four of the fifteen spots on the album, perhaps the greatest being their rendition of “You Must Believe in Spring.” “You Don’t Know What Love Is” also shows Bennett to be in his element.

In its way, Together Again defines the character of the Improv recordings. Bennett’s voice is given its rightful focus, unfettered and permitted to stand on its own. Even when the orchestra comes into play, as on the songs from Life Is Beautiful (“Reflections,” “As Time Goes By,”), this sense of undiluted quality persists. The songs taken from his two Rodgers & Hart albums include a sublime version of “Blue Moon,” as well as a gently upbeat “The Lady Is a Tramp.”

The album closes with two live tracks from Tony Bennett with The McPartlands and Friends Make Magnificent Music. Space plus voice plus instrument on “While We’re Young,” leads to the only real bustling, finger-clicking on the album, while “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” is the final word on this short, but intriguing period in Bennett’s career.

Listening to The Best of the Improv Recordings puts a different focus on this infuriatingly talented man. If all you have heard from Tony Bennett are his Greatest Hits, then listen to this album.

The Best of the Improv Recordings was released on July 12—Mr. Bennett’s birthday—via Concord Music Group.