DIONNE WARWICK - ESSENTIAL TOUR EDITION
Dionne Warwick "Essential Tour edition" Album Review
Album Description
Aussie exclusive compilation released to commemorate the vocalist's 2004 Australian Tour. 23 of her biggest hits, compiled from all her labels on one disc for the first time, including 'Walk On By', 'I Say A Little Prayer', 'What The World Needs Now', 'You'll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart' & 'That's What Friends Are For' (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder). WSP. 2003.
BARRY MANILOW - SCORES SONGS FROM COPACABANA AND HARMONY
Barry Manilow "Scores Songs from Copacabana and Harmony" Album Review
Barry "SCORES " again !
I think this is one of my favorites ! in fact I know it is ,I wore out 1 CD of " Scores" already for repeating it so many times ! Some of the songs are new to me especially " Who Needs To Dream ?" ,Sweet Heaven I'm In Love Again ",And !! " Bolero de Amor " !! I didn't think I could love his music more ,( or his musical talents )or HIM !! But with this album ,in my book he is off the charts. 'Of corse I'm probably his biggest fan,but,even my husband isn't complaining about my playing this day after day !(or my singing) UGH !!!!Nanci
ANDREA BOCELLI - ANDREA
Andrea Bocelli "Andrea" Album Review
Andrea Bocelli - Vivere
He sings with passion and conviction. You cannot help but feel what he sings! He is our son's (who lived in Italy for two years)favorite Italian singer!
Video Andrea Bocelli
Born September 1958, Andrea Bocelli grew up on the family farm set among the vineyards and olive groves of Tuscany. The farm includes a vineyard from which Andrea's father still produces small amounts of "Bocelli Chianti". Andrea's love of opera was apparent from an early age and he feels he was destined to sing. In 1992, Pavarotti first heard Andrea sing and was impressed. They later developed a friendship, with Andrea performing at Pavarotti's annual charity concert and gaining a worldwide following. Today, tenor Andrea Bocelli has developed into one of the best selling performers in the world, with a voice that evokes romance and emotion. In his latest work, titled "Andrea", Bocelli...
TONY BENNETT - THE ART OF ROMANCE
Tony Bennett "The Art of Romance" Album Review
The Art of Tony
As the 1980s loomed, Tony Bennett found himself stranded in the wilderness of L.A., twice divorced and nearly broke after being hounded by the IRS. After a brush with death from a cocaine overdose, Bennett reached out to his son Danny and put his career in his son's hands. "Look, I'm lost here," he told Danny. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."
Son put father on tour at unlikely venues such as college campuses and introduced Bennett to a new, younger audience hungry for a universal musical message. By mid-decade Bennett had won back his recording contract with Columbia Records, and in 1986 he released his first album in over a decade, The Art of Excellence.
Fifteen albums and two decades later, Bennett's career is in high gear, and the ageless songster embodies the definition of "hip." In 1994 he appeared with Elvis Costello and k.d. lang on MTV's hugely popular show Unplugged. The recording taken from that program went platinum, selling more than a million copies to a generation many of whose members had never heard of Cole Porter or Irving Berlin, and winning the Grammy for album of the year. Most of Bennett's more recent offerings have been tributes to the artists he admires, such as Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin. In 2002, with k.d. lang, he recorded an homage to Louis Armstrong, A Wonderful World.
His latest release, The Art of Romance, is another gem. Although Bennett's range and lung power have seen better days, he remains the reigning king of the standards--the man Sinatra once called "the best goddamned pop singer I've ever heard." He still knows exactly where to hold one note and where to cut off another. He handles a pair of Johnny Mercer numbers, "Little Did I Dream" and "Time to Smile," with sublime panache. On the tongue-in-cheek "The Best Man," Bennett's storytelling ability shines as he cleverly employs the turn of phrase behind the song's title. He even shows deftness as a lyricist on his adaptation of an old Django Reinhardt melody, "All for You."
But his strongest performances are to be found on Harold Arlen's "Don't Like Goodbyes" and the album's closer, "Gone with the Wind." There must be some long-lost flame in Bennett's life that he still yearns for, because I swear he's singing to her in these heartbroken elegies to lost love. But how many other male vocalists pushing eighty can convincingly present love songs meant for a younger man's voice?
Few recording artists have enjoyed a second wind as enduring and rewarding as Bennett's. By adhering to his ethic of hard work, by staying true to himself and his music, he now has more than a dozen Grammies and no regrets. Perhaps even more than Sinatra, Tony Bennett has lived and made music his way.
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