After 50 years in the business, Bennett doesn’t need to try, but lucky for us, he still does. Rather than live off his catalog of 90-plus albums, he returned to the scene in 1986 with “The Art of Excellence,” and later charmed a whole new generation of fans with his 1994 Grammy-winning album of the year, “MTV Unplugged.” Now he’s back with a smooth and entertaining CD of spruced-up blues standards that finds him harmonizing with some unlikely suspects.
“Man, they really showed up,” says Bennett of performances by Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow. “The whole secret is to find that contrast–where you definitely know it’s Tony Bennett with B. B. King or Stevie Wonder, but they still work together,” continues Bennett, relaxing on the couch with lapdog Boo in his Manhattan apartment.
Bennett loves to mix things up off record as well. He tours 200 days out of the year, referring to his pad as a “mailing address,” and paints in his free time. He’s reserved wall space for particularly special items, like a framed Billie Holiday concert poster. “I’ve always loved blues and jazz, and that’s what I sang before the commercial world got ahold of me,” says Bennett, who started out as a singing waiter in his hometown of Astoria, in New York’s Queens. “My first record was ‘St. James Infirmary Blues,’ which I did in Germany during the second world war.” By 1950 he was signed to Columbia Records and released a string of hits for the next 20 years–Sinatra even referred to him as the “best singer in the business.” Bennett’s career sagged from 1979 to 1986, until his son/manager Danny reworked a deal with Columbia allowing his father more artistic freedom. It put Bennett back on top.
These days, Bennett tours with young artists such as k. d. lang, yet he still gravitates toward the golden era of songwriting, especially in these difficult times. “Those songs never lose their meaning,” he says. “Look how timely this verse to ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is following September 11: ‘When all the world is a hopeless jumble, and the raindrops tumble all around, there’s a rainbow leading from your window pane to a place behind the sun’.” He pauses. “Look how much that means right now,” and he begins to cry. “It’s timeless. It will last forever.” It’s a sentiment Bennett fans know well.
