Celebrating the release of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s collaborative jazz album, Cheek To Cheek, Sony Electronics teamed up with Columbia Records, Interscope Records and Streamline Records for a High-Resolution Audio listening party at New York City’s Avatar Studios.
With an intimate group of 50 or so reporters, musicians, producers and engineers congregating in the room where most of the album was recorded, producer/engineer Dae Bennett spoke on making the album with his father and Gaga, and the importance of High-Res Audio in today’s industry, noting, “For the listener with high res, there’s definitely a huge difference, especially on headphones.”
For the artist, a high-resolution file portrays the sound he or she intended; instead of losing its depth like in a compressed audio file, it gives the listener more detail in the tracks they listen to. In the past few years, Sony has emphasized the importance of listening in High-Resolution Audio, launching a line of Hi-Res players for home and personal listening that cater to the 96 KHz/ 24-bit audio format. For the listening party, Sony provided stations for guests, letting them get an up-close listen to Hi-Res versions of Bennett and Gaga’s duets on the company’s products.
While Cheek to Cheek strays from the poppy styles Gaga fans have grown accustomed to, the album demonstrates the pure talent and versatility of the New York superstar, which, for Dae Bennett, is what makes the album so strong. “It’s all about having great talent and great performances,” he said. “Lady Gaga brought so much energy to this.”
Also present for the event was Tony Bennett himself, who said that even with their 60-year age difference, he and Lady Gaga’s collaboration was a wonderful experience. “She’s such a great talent,” said the singer. “I definitely want to make more albums with her.”
