They also recruited jazz soloists Joe Lovano and Paul Horn on selected tracks. The duo recruited for their musicians members of Bennett's quartet, Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones, Marshall Wood and Tom Lanier along with The Brian Newman Quartet, Alex Smith (piano), Brian Newman (trumpet), Paul Francis (drums), Scott Ritchie (bass) and Steven Kortyka (tenor sax). According to the press release, the album took over a year to complete. The recording session began in late June of 2013 in New York City. Following the interview, Gaga clarified that the album would consist solely of standards.Īsked about the album in March of 2013, Bennett revealed to Rolling Stone that they already started working on it on papers and would continue to do so until June. ĭuring an interview in late June, Bennett revealed the first song title, " Paradise" stating it is one of the original songs written by Gaga to be included on the album, he also stated that while the album will include collaborative covers between the two, it will also feature solo covers as well as some newly written material. At that point, he did not know how many songs were expected to be on the album, but there would be about four or five different sized orchestras that would be utilized. In an interview with, discussed his involvement in " The Lady is a Tramp" and the upcoming project.
But he did as many hit songs as anybody, and so we're gonna do a big swinging album." I can't mention the composer because I don't want anybody to do it before we do it, but there's a great composer that's very underrated, very famous, but not as famous as Gershwin or Porter. "We're gonna do a jazz album with Marion Evans, a big swing band, and I'm looking forward to it because a lot of people don't know it, but she's a phenomenal jazz singer.
Bennett says that Lady Gaga's father called on her behalf while she was on tour in New Zealand to request doing a collaborative jazz album, which Bennett happily accepted following their work together on " The Lady is a Tramp" in 2011. Tony Bennett originally announced the album in an interview with Rolling Stone in September of 2012.