Product Description:
Personnel includes: Frank Sinatra (vocals); Stevie Wonder (vocals, harmonica, piano); Antonio Carlos Jobim (vocals, piano); Gladys Knight, Jon Secada, Linda Ronstadt, Crissie Hynde, Willie Nelson, Luis Miguel, Patti LaBelle, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Lena Horne, Jimmy Buffett, Lorrie Morgan, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Neil Diamond (vocals); Ron Anthony (guitar); Arturo Sandoval (trumpet); Bill Miller, Terry Trotter (piano); Clay Ostwald (keyboards); Chuck Berghofer (bass); Gregg Field (drums); Rita Quintero, Jorge Noriega (background vocals); Charlie Pollard, Paolo Jobim, Juanito Marquez, Edwin Bonilla, Jorge Casas, Ed Calle.
Includes liner notes by Bill Zehme.
DUETS II won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.
Even as Tony Bennett soars atop the charts, riding the crest of a phenomenal youth revival, The Chairman Of The Board, The Sultan Of Saloon Singers himself, swaggers back to the microphone for a series of cross-generational duets. DUETS II honors his timeless stylings, while celebrating the greatness of the American song itself.
With a hip, ad-libbed intro from composer Stevie Wonder (on piano and chromatic harmonica) setting the stage, "For Once In My Life" juxtaposes the swing and gospel stylings of Sinatra and a Pip-less Gladys Knight. Likewise, R&B diva Patti LaBelle provides a near-operatic counterpoint on Rodgers & Hart's "Bewitched." On a more tender note, Sinatra and Lena Horne turn Gershwin's "Embraceable You" into an autumnal paean to true love, while Linda Rondstadt brings a frosty, delicate sense of sentimentality to her harmonies on "Moonlight In Vermont."
Among the more curious pairings are a laid-back "A Foggy Day" with Willie Nelson, a sassy exchange with Chrissie Hynde on the GUYS AND DOLLS showstopper "Luck Be A Lady," and a flagwaving "The House That I Live In" with Neil Diamond. But a pairing of Sinatra, Sr. with Frank Sinatra, Jr. provides the real fireworks on DUETS II: a hard-swinging rendition of Van Heusen & Cahn's "My Kind Of Town," with brassy charts by Sinatra's favorite arranger, Nelson Riddle. Riddle tosses in a tasty figure from Basie's famous "April In Paris" chart as a closing tidbit.
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