Tony Bennett (1926-2023)

By Fritz Byers

Tony Bennett, who died last Friday at 96, sang for us for more than 70 years. We didn’t always listen as closely as we should have. As happens when the crowd is surfing the zeitgeist, the culture took its eyes and ears from Tony for a while –he endured a long dry period as folk, rock ‘n’ roll, and their variants pushed him and his favored music to one side. He even lacked a record contract in the 70s, and he resorted to forming his own recording company.  Its collapse pushed him back on the road.  

But he resisted the many demands that he change his style and update his repertoire, preferring to find strength in what endures: The Great American Songbook. In the end – no surprise – his fidelity was rewarded: in time, listeners found their way back to him, and for the last thirty years of his life he enjoyed the sunlit prominence of a cultural icon. He seemed to find joy in this, although, at least to my eyes, he kept an ironic distance from the many blandishments of the music business.

His taste in music was nearly impeccable, and his voice singular. He was, as he once said, a tenor trying to be a baritone, and perhaps it was that tension that forged his inimitable sound. Sinatra famously called him “the best singer in the business,” and, regardless of that judgment, Sinatra was no doubt correct in saying that Tony “gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”

His vast body of recordings is easy to find.  Plunge in and follow your ears. Herewith, then, just a single recommendation: check out Tony’s recordings with the pianist Bill Evans. The two separate sessions, plus alternate takes, are all there on The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, issued in 2009. And you can listen and watch a half-hour sampling here.

This Saturday on Jazz Spectrum, you’ll hear an homage to Tony.