Bennett still a
one-of-a-kind crooner
There are some things that need to be preserved, treasures so unique that once they are gone, they can never be replaced.
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Tony Bennett: "My favorite song is still 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'"
Anthony Dominick Benedetto's voice is that sort of gem.
The 77-year-old gentleman who performs under the more familiar moniker of Tony Bennett -- known for ballads like "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and "Rags to Riches" -- performs in Honolulu tomorrow and Maui on Friday.
The affable, stylistic crooner has spent more than five decades entertaining the world, a tribute to a rigorous work ethic and love of performing.
In an interview several years ago with the Star-Bulletin, Bennett said he was "warned" by his first accompanist, guitarist Chuck Wayne, to "make sure they don't put a ring in your nose, like cattle, and go with what everybody's doing. ... Stay an individual."
"I grew up in an era of individualism," he told us via e-mail recently, "and it's humorous to me and tragic at the same time that everyone thinks they have to look alike and dress alike. ... I mean, what is it, a club like the Knights of Columbus or something? I don't get it. ... We are all so much more wonderful when we are all different from one another, instead of all just the same."
For years, Bennett worked in the formidable shadow of Frank Sinatra, but now he is one of the few standard bearers of the American songbook.
Even after all these years, he is uncomfortable talking about himself. In response to some of our queries, he preferred to turn the tables, asking: "What's it like to live on an island?" "Do you get claustrophobic?" and "Is it difficult to work in such a beautiful place?"
Bennett also likes telling jokes and steers conversations to a response about someone else -- like Sinatra himself, who bestowed on Bennett one of the most glorious compliments of his life when, as Bennett watched with his bedridden mother (a die-hard Sinatra fan), the man announced on live TV that Bennett was his favorite singer.
Star-Bulletin: Your voice is a cut above most singers. How did it feel to realize that it was not only possible, but almost an obligation to make it your life's work?
Bennett: I was on a plane with (singer) Joe Williams once, and he said something to me which was very true. ... "It's not that we want to sing, it's that we have to sing." And that is true that, from early on, all I wanted to do was sing and paint, and I feel very fortunate that I have been able to make a living doing the two things I love most.
SB: You give a lot of your time to greeting and meeting with fans. Not many entertainers do that anymore.
TB: My fans have always been very nice and respectful people -- perhaps if that wasn't the case, I would feel differently.
SB: Do you think of yourself as a jazz singer?
TB: I have always considered myself a pop singer with a jazz influence. Jazz is one of my first loves, and growing up in New York City, I spent as much time as possible on 52nd Street. I try to work with jazz musicians, which is why I have with me now a brilliant quartet of jazz artists. ... Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Tatum, Stan Getz are some of my favorites.
SB: What are some of your favorite songs?
TB: Well, my favorite song is still "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." As a result of that song, I have been commissioned all over the world, and it has given me a wonderful life. I only sang that song to soften notoriously skeptical San Francisco crowds on my first visit there, but Columbia Records executives heard the performance and asked immediately to record it. It was released as the B-side of a single in 1962.
I thought it would just be a local hit in San Francisco and wouldn't be released. But then it was and it became my institutional song. Even the United Nations made me a world citizen because of that song, I played it in so many countries. You know people ask, "Don't you ever get tired of singing it?" And I always say, "Well, do you get tired of making love?"
SB: You were the first white singer to sing with an African-American band, with your stint with Count Basie during one of the deepest racial divides in American history. Why did you do it and were there any career repercussions?
TB: If music is good, then it is good -- there are no demographics, race, age or other factor that should get in the way. Who wouldn't want to perform with Count Basie and his band? That was an honor. I try not to get too political, but basically I consider myself a humanist -- we should just try to respect each other at all times.
SB: With your remarkable career span and proven timelessness of your music, is there anything left?
TB: I have enough ideas for another 100 albums, so I just hope I can get to do them all.
SB: What have you found is the most cathartic thing about painting an empty canvas?
TB: Winston Churchill, who was a painter, once said there is nothing more frightening than a blank canvas, and I have to agree with that. The amazing thing about painting is that I can paint for four hours and it will only seem like four minutes. ... I try to communicate truth and beauty, whether in a face, a landscape, whatever the subject may be.
SB: You're no stranger to Hawaii?
TB: I love Hawaii and I usually paint when I am here, but it is a funny thing, as the landscape is almost too beautiful that it is intimidating to try to capture on canvas.
SB: When this journey comes to a close, what would you like your legacy to be?
TB: Well, I am going to quote Basie on that one. They asked him the same question, and I kind of believe his philosophy. He said, "All I wanted to be is known as a nice guy."
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Tony Bennett
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
When: 8 p.m. tomorrow
Tickets: $55 and $75
Call: 877-750-4400
Also: 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Castle Theatre of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Tickets $35, $55, $75 and $95. Call 808-242-7469.
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