2016 Grammy Award winner – Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

This recording marked the first Grammy for pianist Bill Charlap, who became jazz studies director at William Paterson University in 2015. Charlap got an on-stage hug at the February 2016 Grammy Awards from his legendary collaborator, singer Tony Bennett, who shared the honors.

This was Bennett’s 18th Grammy. “He’s a musical giant,” Charlap said.

The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is an appreciation of the genius of Jerome David Kern, one of the 20th century’s most important American composers of musical theater and popular music. Jerome Kern was a major force on Broadway and in Hollywood musicals in a career that spanned more than four decades. He expanded on earlier musical theater traditions, from vaudeville to operetta, to embrace new dance rhythms, syncopation and jazz progressions and helped invent the modern musical template. While many of his Broadway musicals and Hollywood musical films were contemporary smash hits, Kern is perhaps best remembered today through revivals of “Show Boat,” one of his signature achievements.

Tony Bennett is the only artist to successfully bridge the worlds of pop music and jazz on an international scale for more than 60 years. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern become parts of a timeless legacy of recordings that Bennett has done throughout his career that have embraced both genres, in particular the revered piano jazz albums that he recorded with the late Bill Evans in 1975 and 1977. Tony has become synonymous with the pop/jazz connection and in recent years has been a mentor to contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga and the late Amy Winehouse in encouraging them to embrace jazz music.

Playing alongside Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap on The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern are pianist Renee Rosnes (on the piano duet pieces), Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums). Unrelated, though sharing the same last name, Peter and Kenny have been performing with Bill Charlap for nearly two decades and pianist Renee Rosnes has been Charlap’s life partner for close to 10 years.

With more than 700 Jerome Kern compositions to choose from, the set list for The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is a distillation of essential highlights from a boundless catalog. With these interpretations of some of Jerome Kern’s finest songs, Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap offer a definitive introduction to Kern’s music while providing a deep understanding of the abiding and universal qualities of these songs.