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Joe Sinnott/THIRTEEN Productions
The “Cheek to Cheek” performance featuring Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, a recreation of the No. 1-selling jazz album, was recorded in July at the Rose Theater in NY exclusively for LG. It was designed as a showcase of Ultra HD video, complementing the high-res version of the duo’s release.
Representatives from LG told CNET the producers of the event came to the company looking for a high-res music showcase, but LG convinced them to produce the concert in 4K. No word as yet as to whether it will be released as a separate audio recording.
In December 2013 Amazon announced that 4K streaming would be coming, and it appears this concert will be part of that offering.
The broadcast will be shown at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) tonight, though sadly not in 4K, with the Amazon Instant Video date yet to be announced.
The view from the audience
Though the finished results will be visible tonight, I was fortunate enough to attend the recording. As a casual observer of the pop performer, the biggest surprise to me was that without the autotune and other electronic fiddling, Lady Gaga can really sing. Even Tony Bennett said at one point: “She’s a helluva jazz singer.” Tony Bennett was mostly in fine form, though a bit croaky in parts. The big band supporting them, however, was exemplary.
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While I have been to several live tapings of other TV shows and concerts, this would have to be one of the strangest I’ve witnessed. The reason? The pair didn’t play to the audience at all: it was strictly for the cameras, with dead silences in between songs. This is unusual, as most have warmup guys or music playing in the breaks, and especially when Lady Gaga would disappear for 5 minutes after almost every song to change costume. Though you can bet it won’t appear in the broadcast, it seemed like the showman in Tony Bennett also found this frustrating, and toward the end of the performance one of his only asides to the audience as she left the stage again was, “I wonder where she’s going?”
Ty Pendlebury attended the event as a guest of LG.
