Supposing for a moment that we abandon the ‘is he or isn’t he a jazz singer?’ debate and agree that Tony Bennett is simply a unique voice who’s done much of his best work within jazz frameworks; then this welcome double CD will delight anyone with an ear for quality vocal performance.

To get the discographical stuff out of the way, the five albums are Cloud 7, The Beat of My Heart, Hometown, My Town and the celebrated brace of LPs which found the singer out front of the Count Basie band, Count Basie Swings, Tony Bennett Sings and In Person.

The latter pair have been reissued many times (often with shoddy sound) but they sound magnificent here. For the main part the partnership works, Bennett’s sly way with the beat on ‘Strike Up The Band’ being almost pure-Kansas City, but occasionally there’s an oil and water quality to the proceedings, Ralph Sharon’s score for ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face’ taking a few odd turns and Bennett’s bel canto ‘Lost In The Stars’ perhaps a tad over-sentimental in this context.

He also fights a similar battle on The Beat of My Heart, aided and abetted by, among others, Al Cohn, Nat Adderley and Art Blakey (simply fabulous on ‘Just One of Those Things’). Yet again there are some questionable repertoire choices (‘The Army Air Corps Song’) and arrangements that sometimes dip a little too cleverly into the modern jazz trick book (the hook from ‘Jordu’ on ‘Let’s Face The Music and Dance’; the interpolation of Mulligan’s ‘Westwood Walk’ on ‘Let There Be Love’). It’s still a winner, though.

The absurdly brief Hometown, My Town is more traditional big band fare, but the pick of the bunch must surely be Cloud 7, the earliest set on the collection and Bennett’s first-ever LP, taped before his vocal mannerisms has settled into a fixed style. Surrounded by a tight combo of leading New York ‘cool school’ players (including the gorgeous Bobby Hackett-esque trumpet of Charles Panely), here he almost reaches the mentholated restraint of Mel Tormé.

All in all, beautiful stuff for lovers of songs, swing and classy delivery.