Duos

Together Again; Tony Bennett and Bill Evans

The first album met with such success that Bill Evans and Tony Bennett couldn’t wait to get into the studio for round two. And if the quality isn’t what it was the first time around, then it’s because it’s better. Mr. Evans and Mr. Bennett graced “Together Again” with selections laced, perhaps, with a healthier dose of obscurity. Don't we get tired of the same old standards all the time?

The “two’s company, three’s a crowd” aspect of a piano-and-other duo has always appealed to me. Personnel conflicts iron out easier, fewer cogs receive fewer wrenches and the intimacy is, oh, so sweet. Bill and Tony fall into their respective duo roles with aptitude and ease.

Their last song together on this album is Cole Porter’s “Dream Dancing”. I see that this song honors my iPod with its presence five times. Each rendition is good and they each have their individual moments of greatness. Mr. Evans’ piano solo is powerful in its starkness yet sublime with its implied colors. The lyrics of this particular Porter gem catch the listener off guard with one of the most intense notions in all of the Great American Songbook: the conviction that one can be passionately in love while asleep:

When day is gone and night comes on

Until the dawn what do I do?

I clasp your hand and wander through slumber land

Dream dancing with you

We dance between a sky serene

And fields of green sparkling with dew

It’s joy sublime whenever I spend my time

Dream dancing with you

Dream dancing

Oh, what a lucky windfall

Touching you, clutching you

All the night through

So say you love me, dear

And let me make my career

Dream dancing with you

I’m caught in the middle of the logic systems of the pessimist and the optimist.

Pessimist: It’s too bad these two giants only made two albums together.

Optimist: Thank God these two giants made two albums together.

It’s somewhat akin to the great pessimist/optimist argument:

Pessimist: Things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Optimist: Oh, yes, they could.

Credits: To Mr. Cole Porter, not only for brilliant words and brilliant music, but brilliant thoughts, as well. Thank you for “True Love” and “Dream Dancing”.