Interview: Lady Gaga + Tony Bennett

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

After Tony Bennett and I spent a few minutes catching up at his art studio two weeks ago, we sat down on a sofa to chat for The Wall Street Journal (go here) about Cheek to Cheek, his new duet album with Lady Gaga (go here). Ten minutes into our conversation, I asked him a question that for many jazz fans is the elephant in the room:

"What do you say to fans who view the new album as a marketing strategy—a ploy, if you will, to rejuice your hip image and to give Lady credibility with an older and valuable demographic?" 

Tony paused to think. The answer that followed blew my mind, reminding me that Tony's instincts and commitment to art are so much more interesting than most people realize:

"No, no, I don't think that's true," he said. "Lady's a real jazz singer—an improviser who sings these songs differently each time we do them. If we tour, I think many people are going to say, 'Wow, we had no idea she could sing that well.' Look, jazz is so special—I've always wanted to let young people know about it. The world loves jazz, more so than here in most cases. When Lady finished her concert in Japan recently, 40,000 fans were screaming and she said, 'I'll be back and it will be all jazz next time.' That's my dream—to bring jazz out so it won't be forgotten."

So while this partnership between an 88-year-old jazz and pop icon and a 28-year-old phenomenon is the merging of two fascinating recording artists and performers, this is also about jazz's cultural longevity. And the approach is really quite radical: to preserve jazz, you don't need to sell it like soap or dress up in suits and ties; you merely have to expose more young people to it through high-profile ambassadors who love it and want to share the passion. The music will do the rest.

On Friday, I interviewed Lady Gaga by phone from Dubai (go here). We talked about her passion for jazz (she boxes while Ella Fitzgerald is playing), her love of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and why Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn have been meaningful to her since age 14. Then I asked her the question that's probably on most jazz fans' minds:

"Some may think your interest in jazz is just a fling, that it's just a phase. True?"


"Not at all," she said from the side of the road in Dubai, where she asked her driver to pull over for better phone reception. "I'm planning to release one jazz album a year. I think I will continue to do that forever. I enjoy it so much. I want to spread it to all of my fans."

Let's take two steps back, if we may, for some perspective. The music industry has changed radically in the past five years. If you're a close reader of Billboard as I am, then you know that the way top artists make their living today isn't by recording albums but by touring. You only have to check the concert grosses in the magazine's BoxScore chart to see where the clef signs meet the road. Tony has been recording with young talent since 1994 and knows that for jazz and pop—our music—to endure, you have to expose young people to its virtues, and the best place to do that is on TV or live in concert. All those cell phone pictures and blurry performance YouTubes? Think of it as marketing.

Lady Gaga—whom I found highly articulate, passionate and open when we spoke—works extremely hard and will be touring steadily through Thanksgiving before heading home to the U.S. Just listening to her talk about the road is exhausting. Personally, I sensed a loneliness in her voice, a sadness and fatigue with the pop industry, which she said thrives today on scandal, hype and working talent to the bone to cover costs. My guess is that part of Lady's proclivity for revolving fashion-forward looks and costume changes is art along the lines of photographer Cindy Sherman. But it's also a way for Lady to create an ever-shifting series of personalities so that her original self can hide out in disguise. It's hard to blame her.

But inside this dollhouse of concerts, photo shoots and tabloid stories is a desire on her part to get real, to perform music that actually satisfies her and makes her feel artistically special. Enter Tony Bennett.

JazzWax clips: Here's Tony in 1993 presenting at the MTV Video Music Awards with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Be sure you're sitting down when you view. Move the bar to 2:14 if you want just the presentation...

Here's Tony and Lady singing I Can't Give You Anything But Love...

And here's Lady and Tony singing Anyting Goes...

read more: www.jazzwax.com
Used with permission by Marc Myers