Jazz breaking news: Preview Of ‘Body And Soul’ Featuring Amy Winehouse And Tony Bennett Released
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Destined for release as a charity single next month, a snippet of the duet between Tony Bennett and the late Amy Winehouse on classic standard ‘Body And Soul’ has been released on YouTube.
Jazz fans should know the 1930 song from the Coleman Hawkins 1939 Bluebird instrumental version of the Johnny Green tune which relied on a “vertical” interpretation” of the song’s chord changes rather than a “horizontal” paraphrasing of the melody.
Many saxophonists since and other instrumentalists have used the song as a kind of trial by fire of their musicianship while singers have explored the poetic verses, inserting their own minor variations and interpretations. In Frank Sinatra’s smoothly crooned version for instance there is an urban sophistication while Billie Holiday’s sweetly sung version is far chirpier than her usual tearjerker and torch songs.
‘Body And Soul’ is a very mature song, with a Heyman/Sour/Eyton lyric that affirms the idea of “surrender” without a hopeless desperation, at least in the way Holiday sings it. In the snippet released the part of the song that is dwelt on is just 46 seconds long, beginning with a swell of strings and Winehouse coming in on the line “my life a wreck you’re making”, with Bennett then alone on “you know I’m yours for just the taking” and then the pair together singing in duo, ”I gladly surrender myself to you, body and soul.”
Tony Bennett will introduce a special tribute to Winehouse at the MTV video music awards this weekend. The pair recorded ‘Body and Soul’ for Bennett’s own album Duets II together at Abbey Road studios in London back in March. The charity single is released on 20 September with proceeds going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. The Duets II album comes out in the US on the same day.
– Stephen Graham