![]() They gave Bennett’s musical director, pianist Ralph Sharon, some sheet music that he stuck in a dresser drawer and forgot about until he was packing for a tour that included a stop in San Francisco. Ironically, his most famous contribution came through two unknowns, George Cory and Douglass Cross, who in the early ’60s provided Bennett with his signature song at a time his career was in a lull. ![]() “Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. “No country has given the world such great music,” Bennett said in a 2015 interview with Downbeat Magazine. His final album, the 2021 release “Love for Sale,” featured duets with Lady Gaga on the title track, “Night and Day” and other Porter songs.įor Bennett, one of the few performers to move easily between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences to what he called the Great American Songbook. ![]() His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Amy,” which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance of “Body and Soul.” Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. He not only survived the rise of rock music but endured so long and so well that he gained new fans and collaborators, some young enough to be his grandchildren. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice - “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself - that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number. Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalog rather than hit records.” He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys - all but two after he reached his 60s - and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.īennett didn’t tell his own story when performing he let the music speak instead - the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. There was no specific cause, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.įor related news, see: Appreciation: For Tony Bennett, there was never anything more beautiful than a song Publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett’s death to The Associated Press, saying he died in his hometown of New York. ![]() He was 96, just two weeks short of his birthday. Old people always tell you: 'When you've been around as long I have, then you can argue.' As soon as they're ripped off, it's a different story.NEW YORK - Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” graced a decades-long career that brought him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died Friday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |