Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Bennett and Gaga at Kennedy Center: Dissection of an Era
Bennett and Gaga at Kennedy Center: Dissection of an Era

The simple act of their musical coming together makes for irrefutably fertile media ground. The contrast in ages challenges our cultural preconceptions. The musical selections and arrangements suggest a lost continuity between the great American songbook and today's pop music. The alternation between solo tunes and duets casts a spotlight on each performer, simultaneously re-affirming Gaga as a vocal force and recognizing Bennett's historic role as heir to

Frank Sinatra
vocals1915 - 1998
The narrative, therefore, was of a successful experiment elevating both artists and drawing new audiences to the music of the 40's and 50's, the period that heralded the pop phenomena itself.
The evening's high points certainly supported such a narrative. On duet tunes like the opening "Anything Goes," the playfully rendered "I Won't Dance," and requisite "Lady is a Tramp," Bennett and Gaga showed an ability to tap directly into the mainstay of pop sensibility, navigating these classics with aplomb and a refreshing sense of good humor that underscored the music's ability to uplift and embrace joyfulness.
Bennett also put forward poignantly reworked versions of his repertoire that unearthed the oft-obscured subtler shades of meaning latent in the music of that time. For example, Bennett allowed the age-induced rawness and strain of his voice to extract rich layers of meaning from

Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
At the other end of the spectrum, however, the night's low points unintentionally exposed the darker elements of that particular musical era. Failed attempts like an utterly over-staged "Cheek to Cheek" and a saccharine "Who Cares" resurrected the cookie cutter schmaltz of the era, which at best was tasteless and at worst promulgated the restrictive, highly gendered definition of "happiness" that the following generation would rebel against. Worse yet, however, was the evening's nadirGaga's rendition of the jazz standard "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?." Decked out in a period fedora and suit, Gaga strutted the stage while delivering tortured vocals that at times seemed a parody of black vocal style and slipped over the edge into offense, reminding one of the long history of appropriation and African-American repression that cannot be separated from the music of that time and deserves to be more judiciously approached, if not directly confronted.
At the end of the night, these competing highs and lows revealed something more complex than appeared to have been intended. The event's best moments conjured the pleasure of a straightforward tune and simple sentiment, while providing a window into a period steeped in a sense of hope, progress and possibility. On the other hand, the evening's less inspired moments reinforced that the era's sense of hope and progress was largely restricted to a privileged class, and that the portrait of happiness being painted was tainted by stark racial division, a consistent pattern of cultural appropriation, and flagrant sexism.
The 40s and 50s comprised a complex era, simultaneously rich with fresh hope and festering inequity. A bolder approach might have explored these tensions intentionally, but the final result was nonetheless illuminating.
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Tony Bennett
Live Reviews
Franz A. Matzner
United States
District Of Columbia
Washington
frank sinatra
duke ellington
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