I was born in Maryland and spent my first thirty years living there, first in the Appalachian Mountains, then on the Eastern Shore, and later in suburban Washington. After a year in South Carolina, I moved to Georgia in 1977. I soon met another park ranger who worked in Florida. She was a wonderful woman who became my best friend. then my wife, and soon the mother of our three children. I spent over eleven years working in the historic city of Savannah, Georgia, and on the moss-draped sea islands nearby before moving to Atlanta.. In 2007, I retired from the National Park Service and a career dedicated to preserving and interpreting resources and themes in the cultural and natural history of the United States. It was a most rewarding experience. Today, I enjoy living in the rolling hills and woods of the Appalachian Piedmont east of Atlanta.
Anthony Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett, turns 92 today. After more than seventy 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 on stage in 2003 Photo: Tom Beetz
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:
Lately the entertainer has reached deep into the past for material and produced a series of duet albums with vocalist young and old. In addition to Krall, Bennett recorded albums with Paul McCartney, Josh Groban, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, and Marc Anthony. The man shows no sign of stopping either. The news this year is the production of a second duet album with Diana Krall due out in early fall. It's fairly certain a second album with Lady Gaga is also in the works. There's good reason for that given this fine performance from their first album, Cheek to Cheek:
If you like what you hear, buy the music and help keep jazz, swing, and the Great American Songbook alive and well.
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