How many singers are there out there that you would still want to see when they were about to turn 93? As glorious as Marilyn Maye is, she’s not that old yet. So there’s really only one person who could command an audience of nearly 18,000 people. And that person is Tony Bennett,who returns to take command of the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, July 10th.
There really isn’t anything else to say or write about a singer about whom even Frank Sinatra praised highly. But better to let Mr. Bennett tell that story from this interview in 2011 with The Guardian:
“He changed my life,” Bennett says. “In [an article in] Life magazine, he was emphatic about saying that I was the best singer he’d ever heard. I was moderately popular then, and every so often I’d have a million-selling record, but for me it was about being good, not the most famous. [Then] he called me the best he’d heard. And since then, I sold out around the world.”
Of course, when he’s not singing and traveling the world, he’s drawing and painting. Like this image on his website of Lady Gaga with whom he collaborated on the 2014 recording Cheek to Cheek.
Bennett has been recording since his debut album in 1952, Because of You. Last year he released Love Is Here to Stay, an album of duets with Diana Krall. Of course the world totally embraced him in 1962 when he released his signature song on an album of the same name:
In the Johnny Mercer song he also made famous, Bennett sang, “I want to be around…” In that particular case it was to pick up the pieces of a broken heart. But he’s had other ideas personally. Because at almost 93 he’s still going strong. How many more years will we be able to enjoy him live and in concert? That makes Wednesday night’s performance a must-see.
For tickets go here.
Photo of Tony Bennett courtesy of the LA Philharmonic Association.