(Reprinted from the October 2021 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
In August, singer Tony Bennett’s son and manager, Danny Bennett, announced that the beloved traditional pop superstar would be retiring from live shows after more than 75 years of performing. The Bennett team then cancelled all of the singer’s fall 2021 concert dates. The reason is medical rather than musical: the 95-year-old Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago, has lost much of his cognitive functioning, even though his singing ability remains intact.
This seeming contradiction is one of the mysteries of neuroscience, points out journalist John Colapinto, who interviewed Bennett at the singer’s Central Park South apartment last November. Colapinto’s poignant telling of Bennett’s battle with the progressive disease, published in the February 2021 issue of AARP magazine, not only honors Bennett’s lifelong dedication to the American Songbook, but offers a sympathetic view of those who suffer from the disorder. Bennett still rehearses twice a week with his regular pianist Lee Musiker and continues to live a full life, the article asserts—thus offering a much-needed hopeful message to Alzheimer sufferers and their families. This message is “just another gift that [Tony] can give to the world,” Susan Crow, Bennett’s partner of almost four decades, told Colapinto.
Bennett performed two live shows with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in early August, right before the retirement announcement. Gaga is only one of many jazz and pop artists with whom Bennett has collaborated à deux; besides two iconic albums with pianist Bill Evans in the 1970s, he’s recorded duet albums featuring singers as wide-ranging as Diana Krall, Sting, Amy Winehouse, Tim McGraw, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Norah Jones. (These random few are just the proverbial tip.)
But in 2014, when Gaga and Bennett released Cheek to Cheek (Columbia/Interscope), their first album together, the collaboration created magic of a singular order: the record debuted at number one on Billboard 200 and went on to win the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album. A sequel seemed likely, and in 2018 the duo began work on a Cole Porter tribute, Love For Sale, for the same joint label—after Bennett’s diagnosis, as the disease was proceeding to take greater hold of his faculties. A documentary filmmaker was on hand to capture the making of this album, chronicling both Bennett’s evolving cognitive difficulties and Gaga’s emotional reaction to her mentor’s illness. The film, when released, will likely reveal to us the part of Bennett’s mind that has trouble processing everyday things. But the new album, which launches on Oct. 1, will show us the part of his mind that remains impervious to decline, still as vibrant and life-affirming as when the singer, just a teenager from Queens, first picked up a microphone.
This summer UK-based Avid Group released a two-disc collection of four of Bennett’s most well-known albums, recorded for Columbia in 1959-62, when the crooner was at the apex of his career. This collection of remastered hits, Four Classic Albums plus Second Set, would be a good place for those unfamiliar with Bennett’s massive oeuvre to start. The 54 tracks on these four albums—To My Wonderful One, My Heart Sings, Tony Sings For Two, and I Left My Heart In San Francisco—plus four bonus tracks from Alone Together, contain a huge swath of Bennett’s hits, both large and small: the blockbuster “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”, a wistful “Smile”, a full-throated “September Song”, and a swinging “The Best Is Yet To Come”, for instance. (It should be noted that not everyone appreciates the sound quality of Avid’s “classic” re-releases, but what a convenience to have all of this history in one tidy package, complete with the original liner notes).
Singer Jay Clayton celebrates her 80th birthday—and 60 years of jazz performing—at the Jazz Gallery on her actual birthday this year, Oct. 28. Clayton, with more than 40 albums to her credit, added two more during the pandemic: Alone Together (Sunnyside), a sparkling foray into free improvisation with the late avant-garde drummer Jerry Granelli, and 3 For The Road (MeisteroMusic), a trio album with pianist Fritz Pauer and trombonist Ed Neumeister, recorded in Austria in 2001. Clayton’s nimble vocalizations and poetic discursions charm and disarm throughout.
Singers passing through town: Stacey Kent introduces Songs From Other Places (Candid) at Birdland Sept. 28-Oct. 2; Judy Wexler takes the stage at Pangea Oct. 20 and early swing aficionados Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander play littlefield on Oct. 22.