Come Together: The 5 Best Intergenerational Musical Partnerships---Plus a Bonus Track

Last month, I attended Jazz at Lincoln Center's Unity Festival, billed as "uniting generations, cultures, and perspectives," while bridging divides and uplifting “intergenerational mentorship and collaboration."?

Jazz’s deep intergenerational tradition was on full display. Prime example: Scatter the Atoms that Remain, led by drummer Franklin Kiermyer, and pianist Davis Whitfield (pictured above). They co-founded the band in 2017 when Kiermyer was 61 and Whitfield, 25. (To witness an antidote of ageism, watch this 2018 performance).

Along with the recent Grammys, the Unity Festival prompted reflections on my favorite cross-generational musical partnerships. Here's my (admittedly idiosyncratic) playlist.??

Shemekia Copeland and B.B. King. This Letterman performance from 2003 captures Copeland, 24, and King, nearly 80 and confined to his chair, together on "Everyday I've Got the Blues." Their duet is filled not only with joy, but reminders about the time-sensitivity of these collaborations involving artists late in life. The song's refrain: "Everyday I've got the blues...Honey, it's you I hate to lose."?

Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy. A remarkable cogenerational duet is featured in the film Summer of Soul, where a 29-year-old Mavis performs with her mentor, Mahalia Jackson. Listening to Staples on Norah Jones’s podcast introduced me to her collaboration with a young Jeff Tweedy, founder of Wilco. I was particularly struck by their duet, "You Are Note Alone."?

Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. The greatest cross-generational music collaboration of all time? For me it? is the one between Johnny Cash and the producer Rick Rubin, who in his 20s resurrected an ailing and aging Cash's career. Over the last 10 years of Cash’s life they won Grammy upon Grammy for the American Recordings series, replete with Cash’s covers of young artists, including “The Mercy Seat” by Australian Nick Cave (of the Bad Seeds). I find this song to be a joyful balm, especially after the searing tale of The Mercy Seat.

Norah Jones and Ray Charles. In 2004, the year of Ray Charles’s death at 74, Jones, then 24, joined him on "Here We Go Again" on the album “Genius Loves Company.” The song won the Grammy for Record of the Year.??

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. No list could be complete without Gaga and Bennett’s partnership over the final phase of Bennett's life. The duo won Grammys for each of their two albums, "Cheek to Cheek" and "Love for Sale." My favorite song: the aptly titled classic, "I Get a Kick Out of You." The collaboration resurrected both of their careers and produced a powerful tale of intergenerational love and care as Bennett battled Alzheimers.

Bonus Selection: Brandi Carlile and her duet with an 82-year-old Kris Kristofferson at Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday party. The pair’s rendition of "A Case of You" moves me to tears. The duet combines the older singer's vulnerability (he could no longer remember lyrics) with the younger one’s vocal prowess. It’s all we need to know about the unique alchemy of intergenerational collaboration.? And it was how Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile first met each other….

What are your favorite intergenerational musical collaborations?