In Person!


In Person! is a 1959 album by Tony Bennett, accompanied by the Count Basie Orchestra.
The album was originally intended to be a live recording of a November 1958 performance at Philadelphia's Latin Casino, but the mono recording of the concert was disregarded by producer Al Ham who wanted the album recorded in stereo. Bennett and Basie were then reunited in the studio a month later to recreate the live concert. Fake applause was dubbed onto the original release of In Person! by Ham, and placed in incorrect places on the album. The effect was poorly received and removed for the album's 1994 re-issue. In his autobiography, The Good Life, Bennett wrote that "I never understood why we didn't release the live version. The whole attempt at fabricating an audience was in bad taste" and that as a result of the experience he had always preferred the second album he recorded with Basie that year, Strike Up the Band.
Basie and Bennett recorded two albums together in 1959; In Person! was released by Bennett's record label, Columbia, and Strike Up the Band was released by Basie's label, Roulette.

Reception

Billboard magazine chose In Person! as one of their "Spotlight Winners of the Week" in March 1960, and wrote that "The drive of the Bennett vocals is excellently paced by the swingin' Basie crew. Tues are nicely paced and varied. It's an exciting set that builds track after track".
Bruce Eder positively reviewed the 1994 re-issue of In Person! for Allmusic, and wrote that "Bennett's sensitively nuanced intonation in the opening of "Pennies from Heaven" is now up close and personal, while the band's beat in the second half of the song is now crisper and more solid than ever. Ralph Sharon, Bennett's usual accompanist, is handling the piano chores, and his finely articulated playing is also brought out crisply on "Lost in the Stars" and other tracks. It's all worth hearing, and more often than just once—it was records like this, as reconstituted properly for CD, that constituted the absolute golden end of the pop legacy of the late '50s."

Track listing

  1. "Just in Time" - 1:45
  2. "When I Fall in Love" - 2:20
  3. "Taking a Chance on Love" - 1:57
  4. "Without a Song" - 3:06
  5. "Fascinating Rhythm" - 1:30
  6. " Solitude" - 3:35
  7. "Pennies from Heaven" - 2:33
  8. "Lost in the Stars" - 4:01
  9. "Firefly" - 1:39
  10. "There Will Never Be Another You" - 3:16
  11. "Lullaby of Broadway" - 3:13
  12. "Ol' Man River" - 5:00

    Personnel

The Count Basie Orchestra: