American crooner Tony Bennett died Friday morning in New York City at the age of 96.
“I was looking at a Renoir painting in a window,” he recalls, “and struck up a conversation with this guy who was, of all things, a professional juggler and, like me, a painter, too. It was he who suggested I use my family name so that’s why it’s Benedetto when I paint and Bennett when I sing.”
He is heartened to hear that his appearance tomorrow evening at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival roughly fits the same description. Bennett just remembers the drunks who even back then, were not a rare species on a Hull Saturday night. For most people in the world with a radio, the name Tony Bennett will be forever inextricably linked to San Francisco but in the real world, Anthony Benedetto’s heart has never left New York City — or, more specifically, Astoria, in the borough of Queens where he was born 75 years ago next month, the youngest of three children.
But one of his favourite subjects is his own backyard — Central Park, where he likes to go in the early morning or early evening. If people recognize him, they leave him alone. “We have become as close as brothers,” he says of Kinstler. “He’s a great, great friend and to have his expertise to help me along is wonderful. I have three or four great artists telling me what I should do.”
“I’m basically a performer who surrounds himself with great jazz artists,” he says. “And I know how to improvise. I’ve never tried to be a jazz artist, just a jazz entertainer who, right now, has the best jazz group on the boards.”Article content “It means that I’m 14,” he laughs. “I have a good spirit and, fortunately, good health. And my voice in tact. I don’t worry about age I just enjoy life. I’m in love with life. It’s a great gift we all have.”
Bennett has been divorced twice — in 1971, from his wife of 19 years Patricia, and from his second wife Sandra, whom he married that same year. He has two children from his first marriage: Danny, 48, his manager and Daegal, 47. He has two daughters, Joanna, 31, and Antonia, 27, from his second marriage which began to fall apart in the fast lane when the family moved to Los Angeles.Article content
The singer has also been an active civil rights campaigner for most of his adult life and marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.Article content
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