David Evanier - All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett

CONTENTS

To Derek Boulton, Joe Soldo, Dini Evanier,

Andrew Blauner, Theodore Mitrani, Lenny Triola,

Nick Riggio, and Jerome H. Kogan

Copyright 2011 by David Evanier. All rights reserved

Photo credits: Page 56 top, 122, 213 top: courtesy of Nick Riggio; 56 bottom, 123 top, 125 bottom, 215 bottom, 296 bottom: photo by Derek Boulton; 123 bottom, 124, 125 top: photo by Ron Rolo; 213 bottom, 214 bottom, 215 top: photo by Fran Riggio; 214 top: New York Daily News; 216 top, 293, 294, 295 top, 296 top: courtesy of Mark Fox; 216 bottom: courtesy of Geri Tamburello; 295 bottom: photo by David Evanier.

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Published simultaneously in Canada

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I wanted to be one of the keepers of the flame when it came to great music.

Tony Bennett , The Good Life

Introduction

Staying Real

In 1966 Tony Bennett was singing Lost in the Stars at the Hollywood Bowl with Count Basies band. A shooting star shot through the sky right over his head, astounding even a jaded Hollywood audience. The next morning Bennetts phone rang. It was Ray Charles, whom Bennett had never met up to that time, calling from New York. Charles said, Hey, Tony, howd you do that, man? and hung up.

In many ways Tony Bennetts lifehis real last name, Benedetto, means blessed in Italianhas been a magical one, and some of his experiences over the years come as close to the celestial as a human life can aspire to. He has packed several lifetimes into his eighty-five years. The rebirth of Bennett generation after generation is amazing. He has never lost his sense of wonder, even as he has reached the pinnacle of a career that has kept him a huge star for more than sixty years, with sixty million record sales and fifteen Grammy Awards. In 2006 a television special, Tony Bennett: An American Classic , on NBC won multiple Emmy Awards. In 2009 Bennett signed a new $10 million recording contract with Columbia, the company that gave him his greatest early triumphs. His paintings have been accepted for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., including his oil paintings Central Park and God Is Love , a stunning portrait of Duke Ellington with twelve red roses. The roses have a story of their own. Ellington would send a dozen roses to Bennett every time Bennett wrote a new song. The painting was the only one of his own Bennett hung in his home. When Bennett speaks about Duke, he could be describing himself: He was very consistent about being creative all day long. There wasnt a moment that he wasnt creative. When I was in his presence, he was creating something. At all times. The love was mutual. Ellington wrote in his autobiography that Tony Bennett is the most unselfish performing artist today.

He seems to have always been with us. He said on his eightieth birthday, I feel like Rip Van Winkle. He fought in World War II and helped to liberate a concentration camp. He became a top star with Because of You, which topped the charts in September 1951 and sold a million copies. He repeated that triumph in November of that year with Cold, Cold Heart, another gold record, and again and again after that. He marched at Selma. Vittorio De Sica, one of the greatest Italian filmmakers of all time, wanted to make a documentary about Bennetts life in the 1970s. It was not surprising that the foremost Italian humanist director should be drawn to the story of the poor Italian American boy with the warm, gruff street voice, whose passionate antifascism, antiracism, and pacifism were shaped by his experiences in the world war.

Today, at eighty-five, Bennetts charm, heart, technical facility, and sincerity have never relinquished their hold on the country. He stands at five feet nine, and his blue eyes still startle. He is extraordinarily handsome for a man of any age, and his is a classic Italian profile. His speaking voice remains virile, husky, with a strong touch of gravel, hickory smoke, and the streets of New York. His mind and heart seem to wrap around every song, and his husky voice seems to personalize a song as if it were an intimate encounter between singer and listener.

He is, astoundingly, a better singer than he ever was before, more melodic, more haunting. Writing of Bennetts performance in Philadelphia in August 2010, A. D. Amorosi wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer , Ive attended several Tony Bennett shows in the last 20 years, and I must report: Saturday nights sold-out Mann Center gig was his best.... The great triumph... was that, simply, Bennett never sounded finerrefined, tough, tender, more theatrical than ever, capable of crooning to the rafters without losing the nuanced phrasing he has developed.

Listening to more recent Bennett recordings, singer Ellen Martin says that the voice is different from the young voice, but he sings beautifully and with the same feeling. Its very penetrating, thoughtful, intense, and rich. He really does stay in the moment. It actually feels live, as if he hadnt worked out in advance how he was going to sing the end of the song. Because hes so connected with these life experiences and feelings, because he touches something in himself, it touches the same in us and we relate.

There are only a handful of performers in the history of show business who rise above all the other stars because they are not only great singers but also great entertainers: Sinatra, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, Dean Martin, Ray Charles, Fred Astaire, Al Jolson, and Tony Bennett. We are talking about the kind of magicstardustthat transcends all fashions and trends, simply magic that will endure forever.