September 18, 2002 — With multiple Grammy awards between them, Tony Bennett and k.d. lang share their considerable vocal prowess, dedication to the art of intimate singing, and passion for the Great American Songbook in an album of duets, A Wonderful World, to be released November 5 on RPM Records/Columbia Records. A Wonderful World was produced by T Bone Burnett, producer of last year's Grammy-winning Album Of The Year, O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Inspired by the songs associated with Louis Armstrong, a friend and colleague of Bennett's as well as a major musical influence on both performers, A Wonderful World features such songs as "La Vie En Rose," "If We Never Meet Again," "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)" and the well-loved Armstrong classic, "What A Wonderful World." Bennett explains, "I had remembered hearing a version of Louis singing this song in the 1970s during the Vietnam War. He opened the song with his own musings about the state of the world and all the discontent and strife, yet in typical 'pops' fashion he puts it all into perspective and lets you know in the end it will all be fine. I think the message of the song is still appropriate and necessary to hear thirty years later, so k.d. and I decided to include it on this record."

K.d. lang, who toured with Tony last summer and appeared on his Playin' With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues album commented on this duet project: "I feel incredibly honored to have the opportunity to be brought into the world of Louis Armstrong by Tony Bennett. The chance to study and record this music with Tony is a tremendous thrill for me as an artist."

The making of A Wonderful World employed a unique recording process and marked the first Tony Bennett album project to be recorded at Bennett Studios, a state-of-the-art production and recording facility located in Englewood, New Jersey, and owned and operated by Tony's son, Dae Bennett. Bennett Studios, which opened in January 2002, has a fiber optic connection to the John Harms Theatre, a 1,200-seat vaudeville theater in Englewood, which allowed for Bennett and lang to record in the theater while feeding the tracks to the nearby Bennett Studios. As Tony explains, "k.d. and I are both live performers first and we loved the idea of recording in what is a very natural setting for us -- a beautiful and acoustically sound theatre like the John Harms. It provided a real sense of drama and spontaneity that can be hard to recreate in a typical recording studio."

Tony's touring quartet (Lee Musiker, piano, Paul Langosch, bass, Clayton Cameron, drums and Gray Sargent, guitar) provided the album's musical accompaniment along with Scott Hamilton (saxophone on selected tracks) and a 50-piece orchestra.

Bennett first met T Bone Burnett during a recording session for "The Divine Sisters of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" soundtrack, which was produced by Burnett and included a track ("If Yesterday Could Only Be Tomorrow") sung by Tony Bennett. Mike Piersante, who also won a Grammy for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, was sound engineer for A Wonderful World and Dae Bennett was the recording and mixing engineer. The late Peter Matz, who has worked with Bennett often in the past, did the album's orchestrations marking his last project prior to his recent passing. Danny Bennett, Tony's son and manager, is the album's executive producer.

A PBS Special, "The Wonderful World of Tony Bennett: Live from San Francisco," will be taped later this month and aired this December. The special features Bennett in performance at the Fairmont Hotel -- the location of Bennett's first public performance of "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," this year marks the 40th anniversary of the song's release in 1962 -- and will include a special guest segment with k.d. lang and Tony performing selections from A Wonderful World.

On September 18th and 19th, Bennett will return to Carnegie Hall, where he made music history as the first pop performer to appear as a solo artist in concert. k.d. lang will join Tony as his special guest for both shows and the two will perform songs from A Wonderful World.

A Wonderful World track listing:

Exactly Like You
La Vie En Rose
I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
You Can Depend On Me
What A Wonderful World
That's My Home (Tony Bennett solo)
A Kiss To Build A Dream On (k.d. lang solo)
I Wonder (Tony Bennett solo)
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
You Can't Lose A Broken Heart
That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) (k.d. lang solo)
If We Never Meet Again