Tony Bennett & Bill Evans The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album (Original Jazz Classics Series) 180g LP

The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album (1975) brings together two legends of modern music. Featuring just vocal and piano, without any additional musicians, the two artists selected the songs and worked out the arrangements for what was to become the first of two albums together. This new edition is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. It is presented in a tip-on jacket.

Since its inception in 1982, Fantasy's Original Jazz Classics® (OJC) series quickly established a reputation as the go-to imprint for collectible jazz reissues. OJC served as a home for the label's impressive jazz catalog – which had grown to include thousands of celebrated titles from Prestige, Galaxy, Milestone, Riverside, Debut, Contemporary, Jazzland, and Pablo. Drawing on this vast wealth of material, Original Jazz Classics released over 850 titles.

Its goal was simple: to reissue influential jazz albums with the utmost care and reverence for the originals — from the cover art and liner notes to the audio recordings themselves. Given Craft Recordings' shared passion for meticulous preservation and quality, it is a natural step to relaunch Original Jazz Classics as part of the Craft family.

2023 sees the continuation of this influential jazz series on audiophile-quality vinyl, through the ongoing release of several of the most coveted (and long out-of-print) albums in this vast collection.

Accompanied by nothing but Evans' gracious, balletic piano playing, the singer had nowhere to hide and no orchestral blasts to duck behind. He left nothing to chance and put forth some of his most impassioned performances, leaning into his hearty vibrato and the thick center of his sturdy tenor. All Evans needed to do was flitter around Bennett's singing and toss in his own splashy solos for color. Back in print on wax as part of Craft Recordings ongoing Original Jazz Classics reissue series and given a wonderful pressing under the watchful ears of Kevin Gray, this is a must-have for any serious or budding jazz collector.