This collection, a triumph in the careers of both Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, was made at a time when these masters each seemed in relative decline. Bennett, considered of limited audience appeal in the heady adolescence of rock, was without a major-label contract while Evans, then well into his second decade of leading a trio, was often accused of having grown too comfortable in a familiar format. Whether lack of commercial pressures freed Bennett to embark on his most open and vulnerable recital, or the need to find new settings presented Evans with the challenge of supporting a singer that he rarely filled on record, or both, the resulting music is some of the most heartfelt and human in that rarely entered realm where jazz and pop music merge.