Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek Album Of Classic Jazz Standards To Be Released on Tuesday, September 23  

Debut Song "Anything Goes" Available Now on iTunes; Accompanying Studio Video Live on YouTube and VEVO 

 

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 29, 2014  -- The long-awaited collaborative jazz album from Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, Cheek To Cheek, will be released on Streamline/Columbia/Interscope Records on Tuesday, September 23.  The first taste of this new music is the classic Cole Porter song, "Anything Goes", available today on iTunes (iTunes.com/CheekToCheek) and other digital retailers.  An accompanying studio video featuring "Anything Goes" and footage from the recording sessions and moments during the making of Cheek to Cheek is currently available on YouTube and VEVO.  Cheek to Cheek represents a collaboration between two legendary musical artists spanning the generations to celebrate jazz music.
(http://vevo.ly/IaqyHg)
Cheek To Cheek features classic jazz standards sung by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in a combination of vocal duets and solo performances.  Each song was handpicked by the artists, and the album features classic selections from the Great American Songbook including "Anything Goes," "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "Sophisticated Lady,"  "Lush Life," and the record's title track, "Cheek To Cheek." Recorded in New York City, the record took over a year to complete and features jazz musicians associated with both artists including members of Bennett's quartet, Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones and Marshall Wood as well pianist Tom Lanier.  Jazz trumpeter Brian Newman, a long-time friend and colleague of Lady Gaga appears on the album as well with his NYC based jazz quintet. Jazz soloists on selected tracks include tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and flutist Paul Horn, who passed away earlier this month.
Of this new project Lady Gaga commented, "Cheek To Cheek came out of a very organic friendship and relationship that Tony and I have built over the years and it truly was a collaborative effort. It was important to Tony that this was a jazz record. I've been singing jazz since I was a child and really wanted to show the authentic side of the genre. We made an album of jazz classics, but it has a modern twist."
"I have been singing the Great American Songbook my entire career and all along forging a bridge between pop and jazz music.  Creating this album with Lady Gaga has been a beautiful experience as she is a fantastic singer and I am hoping that all her fans will embrace this music and swing along with it," said Tony Bennett.
Photographer Steven Klein contributed the photographs and spearheaded the artistic design for the album packaging as well as for the first official image released from Cheek To Cheek, which is featured on the "Anything Goes" cover art.
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga first met backstage in 2011 after the two performed at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City and Bennett asked Lady Gaga to sing a duet with him on his DUETS II album that he was beginning to record.   "The Lady is A Tramp" was the result of that endeavor and conversations began about collaborating on a jazz project.  Recently, Bennett and Gaga surprised the student body at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a NYC public arts high school founded by Tony Bennett, when they spoke and performed for the school on the last day of classes in June.  Earlier this month, Gaga surprised the Montreal Jazz Festival audience by joining Bennett on stage when he was performing at the famed jazz festival.  Last night, they taped a television special that will air on PBS later this fall. The two appeared this morning on the TODAY SHOW to official announce CHEEK TO CHEEK.

SOURCE Interscope Records

 

GREEN DAY'S BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG AND NORAH JONES TEAM UP ON NEW ALBUM INSPIRED BY 

THE EVERLY BROTHERS' CLASSIC ALBUM 

SONGS OUR DADDY TAUGHT US

FOREVERLY DUE FROM REPRISE RECORDS ON 

NOVEMBER 25TH

STREAM "LONG TIME GONE" NOW

     

 Burbank, CA - Green Day front man and Grammy® Award-winning artist Billie Joe Armstrong and Grammy® Award-winning singer and songwriter Norah Jones have teamed up to record Foreverly, an unforgettable 12-song collection inspired by Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, an album of traditional Americana songs reinterpreted, recorded, and released by The Everly Brothers in 1958. Recorded in nine days, Foreverly, captures the beauty of the Everly's stunning close harmonies to create a moving powerful testament to these rootsy ballads. Reprise Records will release album on November 25th. To pre-order the album click HERE. Those who pre-order the album on iTunes will receive an instant free download of the song "Long Time Gone" which is also streaming today HERE.

Jones and Armstrong reinterpret several traditional songs, including "Roving Gambler," "Down In The Willow Garden," "Long Time Gone," "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?," and "Barbara Allen," as well as country tunes like "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" (written by Gene Autry and Jimmy Long) and Karl Davis' "Kentucky."

"I've been a big fan of The Everly Brothers since I was a little boy," Armstrong says. "A couple of years ago, I discovered Songs Our Daddy Taught Usfor the first time, and I fell in love with it. I was playing it every day and thought it would be a cool idea to re-do the record, but with a female singer. I thought of Norah because she can sing anything, from rock to jazz to blues, and I knew her harmonies would be amazing. I thought the songs would take on a different meaning working with her, and she has a really good ear for arrangements. I was mainly intrigued by these old traditionals, country songs, and hymns. When we were done with the album, Norah looked at me and said, 'I bet you didn't think you were going to make a country record, huh?'"

 

Jones, a long-time Everly Brothers fan herself, who used to cover "Bird Dog" in a previous band, describes herself as "a sucker for harmonies and country music."  Also, she says, "Billie Joe's enthusiasm about the songs and his low-key, open approach to the music was very inviting. He wasn't set in his ideas, which made it fun for us both to sort of discover what felt right for us, musically." 

Armstrong and his engineer, Chris Dugan, traveled to New York to record with Jones at The Magic Shop in Manhattan with two of Jones' favorite musicians, bassist Tim Luntzel and drummer Dan Rieser. Armstrong and Jones played guitar and piano. Charlie Burnham on fiddle and Johnny Lam on pedal steel guitar rounded out the band. "It was super fun and experimental," Jones says. "I loved that the original was completely stripped down and a little more obscure.  There was a lot of room to interpret the songs in our own way."

To read more about the collaboration in their own words, visit Stereogum for a "Progress Report" feature with Armstrong and Jones: http://www.stereogum.com/1534781/qa-billie-joe-armstrong-norah-jones-unveil-duets-lp-hear-long-time-gone/franchises/interview/ 

The track-listing for Foreverly is as follows:

 

"Roving Gambler"

"Long Time Gone"

"Lightning Express"

"That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine"

"Down In The Willow Garden"

"Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet"

"Oh So Many Years"

"Barbara Allen"

"Rockin' Alone (In An Old Rockin' Chair"

"I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail"

"Kentucky"

"Put My Little Shoes Away"

  

Credit: Marina Chavez

www.billiejoeandnorah.com

Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds Duets Album, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE Set For December 3rd Release On Motown Records!

"Hurt You," Produced By Babyface And Co-written With Toni, Their First Duet Single, Hits Radio & iTunes!

With an all-time total of 16 Grammy Awards® between them, multi-platinum superstars Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds have finally teamed up for their first album of duets together, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE , arriving in stores December 3rd on Motown Records.  The album celebrates the strong bond that has been in place between the two artists ever since Babyface and Toni's duet on her smash 1992 debut, "Give U My Heart," which was co-written and co-produced by Babyface (from the Boomerang movie soundtrack).

The first single from Toni and Babyface, "Hurt You," blasts out to radio and is available at iTunes now! (http://smarturl.it/ihurtyou) "Hurt You" was co-written by the duo (with Daryl Simmons and Antonio Dixon), and produced by Babyface, who also handled all guitar, drums, and keyboard programming on the track. "Hurt You" was recorded and mixed by Paul Boutin at Brandon's Way Recording in Los Angeles.
For Babyface, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE will be his first new studio album in six years, since Playlist (released 2007), Top 10 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart on the strength of his Top 10 AC version of James Taylor's "Fire & Rain."  For Toni, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE will be her first new studio album in three years, since Pulse (2010), the #1 R&B album containing the hit single "Yesterday" featuring Trey Songz.
Both Toni Braxton and Babyface are active touring artists. Toni is currently in the middle of an extensive East Coast tour, with upcoming shows remaining in Baltimore (8/21), Lincoln, RI (8/23), Atlantic City (8/24), Westbury, NY (8/25), St. Petersburg, FL (8/28), Miami (8/29), and Atlanta (8/31).  Babyface has upcoming shows slated for Dallas (on 8/31) and Henderson, NV (10/11).
About Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds:
10-time Grammy Award®-winning recording artist Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds, singer, songwriter, producer, philanthropist, and record label owner, has been revolutionizing the contemporary pop/Urban music landscape ever since scoring consecutive multi-platinum landmark albums with Tender Lover (1989, with R&B smashes "It's No Crime," "Tender Love," "Whip Appeal," "My Kinda Girl"); For the Cool In You (1993, with hit singles "For the Cool In You," "Never Keeping Secrets," "And Our Feelings," "When Can I See You"); and The Day (1996, with "This Is For the Lover In You" and "Every Time I Close My Eyes").  As co-founder with L.A. Reid of Atlanta's LaFace Records in 1989, Edmonds nurtured the careers of megastars TLC, OutKast, Goodie Mob, Usher, and (starting in 1993) Toni Braxton.  Into the '90s and '00s, Edmonds lent his talents to an abundance of hits with artists ranging from Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Boyz II Men, to Mariah Carey, Madonna, Eric Clapton, Mary J. Blige, John Mellencamp, Aretha Franklin, Fall Out Boy, P!nk, Beyonce, Anthony Hamilton, and many others.  Under Edmonds' belt are more than 125 Top 10 R&B and pop hits, 42 R&B #1 hits, and 51 Top 10 Pop hits (including 16 #1's), which have generated cumulative single and album sales of more than 500 million units worldwide.  Most recent production work with other artists includes Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Keri Hilson, Ledisi and Ariana Grande.  At the same time, Babyface is an active touring artist, performing concerts across the U.S. and around the world on a regular basis. 
Edmonds is the recipient of numerous awards, including Soul Train Music Awards, BMI Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and American Music Awards.  He received the third BET Walk of Fame Award (following previous honorees Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston), and was named BET's Entertainer Of The Year at the First Annual BET Awards Ceremony. His charitable work has garnered him the Essence Award For Excellence, The City of Hope Award, and Variety magazine's "Top of the Town" Honoree Award.  He has donated over $100,000 to the VH-1 Save the Music program, and contributes to a host of worthwhile organizations, including the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).  In 2008, Edmonds and longtime partner L.A. Reid co-wrote and co-produced Stand Up To Cancer's "Just Stand Up" with heavyweights Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Leona Lewis, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, and Sheryl Crow.  The song served as the backbone of a multi-network breast cancer awareness special broadcast.  Edmonds and Reid were subsequently honored by the Noble Awards for their contribution to Stand Up To Cancer.
Website: www.Babyfacemusic.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Babyface
Twitter: Twitter.com/Kenny Edmonds
About Toni Braxton:
The distinctive, sultry vocals of six-time Grammy Award®-winning recording artist Toni Braxton, singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist, have been celebrated internationally ever since she was first introduced to the world by Babyface and L.A. Reid in 1992.  Her self-titled debut album released the next year was a 10 million-selling phenomenon that generated Toni's first Grammys® in 1994, for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal ("Another Sad Love Song").  The album's longevity led Toni to win her second Best Female R&B Vocal Grammy® the following year (for "Breathe Again").  Her second album, Secrets finally arrived in '96, and history repeated itself with 15 million worldwide sales.  At the Grammy Awards® in 1997, Toni became only the second woman in history (beside Dionne Warwick) to win Best Female Pop Vocal ("Un-break My Heart") and Best Female R&B Vocal ("You're Makin' Me High") in the same year.  She returned to the Grammy® podium in 2001, to claim another Best Female R&B Vocal award ("He Wasn't Man Enough," from the double-platinum album The Heat). 
Into the millennium, Toni blossomed into an acting career with Broadway musical roles in Beauty and the Beast and Aida, and a dramatic turn in the Lifetime movie Twist of Faith.  She and her sisters currently enjoy huge success in Braxton Family Values, one of WE tv's flagship reality series, which returns for a fourth season in November 2013.  Raising her two sons Denim and Diezel, Toni balances her career demands with the high priorities of family, heath, public service, and charity work, particularly with the two diseases that have impacted her family directly: She is living with Lupus and her youngest child is living with Autism.  Early detection and intervention has helped both Braxtons to be role models on how to live normal lives with these conditions.  Toni is also a proud spokesperson for Autism Speaks.  
Website: www.tonibraxton.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tonibraxton
Twitter: @ToniBraxton
SOURCE Motown Records