Good old Tony swings with some friends birthday song.

Exactly the question I asked myself when I sat down for this review. Tony Bennett's voice has nothing earth-shattering. It is not very smooth, not clear as a bell, not scratchy like with cheap (American!) Whisky drowned. One can say almost: The guy can not sing so. Hell, why then you realize it's joy of singing to? ;-)

Since the Christmas in Vienna concert that Mr. Domingo has organized a few years ago regularly - ie, since Tony Bennett in this concert had a gig, I have a fancy to the old man - and his music I like.

Bar Jazz, Swing classics, crooners in the broadest sense ... that is the genre in which the old boy (I think we may call him with impunity, because this Duets "album was on his 80th birthday) moves. And has been for ages, and despite the high age still with plenty of firm voice and a lot of fun of it, as you can get to hear the classics are accompanied very discreet and seem rather colorless to me in the end -... Cream pieces are for me the Duets with Billy Joel, Diana Krall and her husband (Elvis Costello) and of course Bono - is swinging so smooth that even the mandatory confection melt away at the living room table ...

With 19 tracks these "Duets" are at least an extensive Monument. The untrained ear would probably notice only after a few hours that the album * runs for the third time on * Repeat because the pieces are by their musical accompaniment and vocal (unfortunately with some exceptions) rather pale.

Who likes Tony Bennett, or has pent-up demand for this kind of music, and who can not find the songs boring even in the umpteenth re-interpreted version that is on Tony Bennett's' Birthday Album have fun.

Reference recordings in terms of "Duets", of much greater significance, however, has already created years earlier on this terrain Frank Sinatra. His two albums, "Duets" and "Duets II" are among the best-kept CDs my collection, I can always hear and repeatedly. Sinatra duets with the "sizes of film, pop, rock, swing and soul" are in contrast to those of Tony Bennett much more pep, verve and above all: character!

A recommendation for Tony Bennett fans, this album but still.