TONY BENNETT - DUETS II

Singer Tony Bennett will celebrate his 85th birthday this fall with a new album, Tony Bennett: Duets II – which his set for release on September 20th. Bennett has already begun the live recording process with several artists during Grammy week in February at LA's famed Capitol Studios. Additional sessions are planned for the coming months in New York, Nashville and Italy. Tony Bennett: Duets II, produced by Phil Ramone follows up Tony Bennett Duets: An American Classic, the 2006 Grammy Award-winning album which became Bennett's best-selling recording to date. An all-star roster will join Tony live in the studio including Mariah Carey, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse. Some of country's biggest names will also join the round-up including Faith Hill, Willie Nelson and Carrie Underwood. From the international pantheon: angel-voiced tenor Andrea Bocelli from Italy and Latino singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz from Spain. Josh Groban and John Mayer are also slated to collaborate with Bennett as well as Michael Buble and k.d. lang, who were both featured on the original Duets album. "I love the Great American songbook and have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to introduce many of these songs to the public... It is a thrill to perform them once again with artists that I admire to create new interpretations of the music I love so much," says Bennett. The recording sessions for Tony Bennett: Duets II are also being filmed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe and will be released as a documentary in conjunction with the new album, providing an in-depth study of Bennett's creative and artistic process.