Tony Bennett: Still Belting Out The Music

Tony Bennett performing in 2003                                               Photo: Tom Beetz

Anthony Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett, turns 87 today. After more than sixty years on stage, he still draws huge audiences to his full concert schedule of tunes from jazz, to Broadway, to the Great American Songbook. Bennett has been at the business so long he's had two careers, a fifteen-year affair with the Greatest Generation, and a now thirty-year reinvention with new artists, music, and audiences following a lull during the rock and roll era. Bennett has also been in the forefront of introducing current generations to the Great American Songbook.

Bennett is an interesting blend of vocal talent and showmanship, a well-perfected entertainer with a not so perfect voice.  You have to learn how to appreciate the value of a permanent vocal strain and a sound out of vaudeville. For me, it was a long learning process, but I've come to appreciate and enjoy the total Bennett experience.  Here he is performing one of his signature songs - from fifty years ago - as a duet with the sensational jazz/pop vocalist, Diana Krall:

So best wishes to the man for a happy birthday and many years to come in the spotlight. The best is yet to come!