A Fireside Chat With Tony Bennett

This interview was first published on All About Jazz in September 2001.

Tony Bennett hails from a period in Americana where style loomed larger than sustenance and men were less than men without a martini or scotch in one hand and a cigar or cigarette burning from the other. Those were the days. And although Tony was never a member of the "Rat Pack," he still had that swagger. At seventy-five, Tony's longevity is a tribute to his rigorous work ethic and his sheer will to perform for the world. At long last, he has earned his place in popular music history and has stepped out of Frank Sinatra's shadow to become the sole living standard bearer for the American songbook. I spoke with Tony not long after two hijacked planes brought down the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. I committed to doing this interview long before September 11 and it was my honor to interview a man whom I had admired for such a length of time. In almost six months, it is the only interview I have done and hopefully, I have done justice to an icon in American music, as always, told unedited and in his own words.

All About Jazz: Your thoughts on what has simply become known throughout the world as 9-11.

Tony Bennett: Well, in New York City, I notice on all the news and newspapers and television that they bombed New York or they bombed America. America at War, New York City was bombed and because I travel as an entertainer all over the world, I sing everywhere from Malaysia to Singapore to Shanghai and then over to Europe and all of Canada and all of South America and Australia and New Zealand, the tragedy is that they bombed the world. They didn't bomb, and I'm not saying this to anger anybody, I just wanted to explain how I feel about the insanity of what happened because no matter where I travel in the world, the reason I live in New York is that everybody that I've ever met throughout the world lives in New York, every nationality, every religion, every type of person in the world. In the World Trade Center, Islamic American citizens were in that building also, so they bombed themselves. I just, it's the only way that I can explain it is that they bombed the world. They didn't bomb New York.

AAJ: Having not an ounce of musical talent to speak of, I have often wondered when a person realizes that their gift, in your case, your voice was a cut above and that it was not only possible, but almost an obligation to make it your life's work.

TB: I like the latter part of what you just said, that I like this and I'd like to make it my life's work. I've always had the great gift of knowing from as far back as I can remember and due to my upbringing with my mom during the Depression and my brother and sister, somehow we were gifted with a lot of optimism. My parents always gave us a lot of optimism even though it was in the Depression and I've always known that I wanted to sing and paint. It's not that I wanted to, I said I have to and I still feel the same way. I'm seventy-five now and I still feel the same way. I never stopped learning and I never stopped being interested in what I'm doing.

AAJ: It has been well documented that you have given much of your time to greeting and meeting with your fans. It is a quality in entertainers that has faded with time. Why has it been a priority for you to be a man of the people?

TB: Well, I've learned that from the fellow who started me out, was Bob Hope and he was that way and I never knew any other way. They are the people that made you and I think it's completely incorrect to just feel that you should, let's get rid of these squares and get out of here. I don't like that philosophy at all. I was very impressed with three people, Stan Laurel who had retired and when I lived in Los Angeles for a while the tour buses would go by his place and everybody would be terribly excited about that. They would stop and get excited by Stan Laurel's house. They would knock on his door and ask for an autograph and he would invite them in and give them a cup of tea. If somebody wrote him a letter, a fan letter by hand he would write a fan letter back to them in appreciation for them liking him. And then Louis Armstrong, when I did the Satchmo documentary on his life, I mentioned to the producer that I was impressed at the Waldorf Astoria when a husband and wife that wanted a picture with him and he said to the camera girl backstage, he said, "Make sure I get a copy also." He said to make two copies and when I told the producer about that, he said, "You're right. We found two hundred thousand photographs of people we never knew and never had seen before." And his attitude was if they wanted a picture of him, he wanted a picture of them. Ella Fitzgerald was that way also.

AAJ: Is Tony Bennett a jazz singer?

TB: I just feel I am a singer. I want to feel free to sing anything I want to sing. I'm amazed at jazz. I think it's the greatest art form of music that has ever been invented.

AAJ: I ask because throughout your storied career, you have been a strong proponent of jazz music as being a cultural spine for America.

TB: It is. We have two traditions. We have baseball and jazz. Those are the only two traditions that are American. When I go to other countries, if I go to England, they show me their theater. If I go to Italy, they show me their music and art. If I go to France, they show me their cooking and painting. Each country, whether it's China, wherever it is, the first thing they do is they say this is what we've contributed to the world and we're such a young country, we don't even know how good we are because it's our only tradition. I mean that should be on, jazz should be in the top forty charts instead of like on the back of the bus. It's still on the back of the bus. It's a fiasco. It's the most important thing that we could ever sell anybody and it's hailed all over the world because they realize it. It's very similar to some of the things they have created like Haiku poetry in Japan and improvisation was in western music, just little smittens of it even there and this long extended jazz that was invented in New Orleans is just fantastic. It's a great art to perform and a great art to enjoy listening to and observing these great players.

AAJ: Who are some of your favorites?

TB: Well, I love Bill Evans and Charlie Parker. I like almost everybody in jazz, the good jazz players you know the Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. I like all of them.

AAJ: You worked with Bill Evans.

TB: Yeah, that's right. I loved Bill. Bill was a genius. I had the pleasure of performing with him. It was unbelievable.

AAJ: The striking ease that Evans had at the piano was a complement to your own lyrical style.

TB: Pretty much, yes, but believe me, it's those resolvants that he makes and how he approaches the music that made it sound so beautiful. He had great classical training and he really knew what he was doing. The guy was a genius. That's a loose word these days but I'm talking about authentic genius.

AAJ: This was long after your stint with Count Basie during one of the deepest racial divides in American history.

TB: I was the first white singer to sing with an African-American band. That was the first time anybody ever did that and it was a great experience. I worked all over with Basie, all over England, Europe and then the United States. We played a lot together.

AAJ: What stands out about the man who remains one of the most formidable bandleaders in jazz?

TB: Well, that was it. He was just so simple and magnificent. The band was so fantastic. You could get to Minneapolis and all of a sudden, it would become like New York City. For that night it was like New York City. That's thrilling for everybody, no matter if they want a rock show, the band would play at a rock show and pull all the rock and rollers out in the aisle. They couldn't believe what they were listening to.

AAJ: With the remarkable span career and the proven timelessness of your music, is there anything left?

TB: Well, that's a wonderful question, because I always feel like I'm starting out. That's where my psyche is. That's where I'm at. I paint everyday. I study music everyday and that's my life and I keep growing. I keep learning. The more I learn, the less I know, so I have to even work harder each day and it keeps me very, very much alive. Usually guys my age, everybody says, "Gosh, what are you still, aren't you going to retire?" Well, it's not a nine to five job. You wake up in the morning and I have so many ideas that I tend to say how can I get it all in. So I'm always perpetually busy and I love it. It keeps me very much alive, very much awake about things.

AAJ: What have you found is the most cathartic thing about painting an empty canvas?

TB: Well, what happens to me is that it makes me fall in love with life because I paint representatively and I study nature. By that I mean people and all forms of nature, landscape and portraits. The more I study it, the more I study the light on things and the whole craft of the various techniques to have something really happen in a painting. I fall in love with being alive. I love watching people, watching trees. I love the four seasons. I love everything. No matter what the weather is, I find something interesting to paint.

AAJ: By painting what have you learned about nature and of man?

TB: Well, I can only quote, not me. I'm not a genius at it like Leonardo da Vinci, but Leonardo, all of the inventions that he ever made, which was unbelievable. He made the airplane. He made the helicopter. He made the tank. He made all these various inventions and he actually invented the submarine. Everything came from painting. That's what happens when you observe and take in what you see. Your teacher is nature and when you paint from nature, it never lets you down. You find something that you never realized that you knew before. It's the best teacher in the world.

AAJ: Your new studio recording, Playing with My Friends, is due to hit record stores in a few days. Undoubtedly, there will be comparisons to Sinatra's Duets. What prompted you want to do a various duets recording?

TB: Well, what drew me, is, first of all, just the premise of singing blues. You know as much as I've always loved it and the first record I ever made was blues and I'm a natural at that. I'm not saying that braggedly. I just love it. I just love to be in that mode. But what happened with these artists, because in the past I've had this great experience cause I've been singing fifty years of singing with Carol Bailey and Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole and Lena Horn and all these great, very honed, great performers and done duets with them and all these new people that Phil Ramone and my son Dan got a hold of. I was thrilled that they wanted to perform with me and it was all live and meeting each one. They all hit homeruns as far as I'm concerned. Each record sounds so different from the next records. There is something different on every side. There's Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel and Natalie Cole and Diana Krall and Bonnie Raitt and Kay Starr. Each one of them just knocked me right out. The way they carried on and B.B. King, Ray Charles, each one is a knock out for me. I loved doing the album.

AAJ: And you are actually been touring with k.d. lang, who also makes an appearance which makes for old times.

TB: Yeah, actually we are doing two more concerts. We did a whole tour already and we are doing this next Friday and Saturday. I'll be at Radio City Music Hall, two sold out performances because everybody's concerned about the amount of business that people may not be going out, but believe me it's two jammed packed houses of six thousand people a night and then we play one more concert up at the Concord Pavilion, outside of San Francisco and that's when we close the tour. The people just love k.d. and we do duets together and so it's a smash hit with the public and the reviewers.

AAJ: Through the years, in interviews conducted in your home or on the road, I have never seen you in jeans or a shirt without a collar. You are a bastion of style even in today's ever-changing fashion world. Do you even own a pair of jeans?

TB: No. I was warned by my first accompanist, Chuck Wayne, a great guitarist and this was in the Fifties, that's how far ahead of time he was. He said, "Make sure they don't put a ring in your nose, like cattle and go with what everybody's doing." He said, "Stay an individual." I grew up in an era of individualism and it's humorous to me and tragic at the same time that everyone thinks they have to look alike and dress alike and I mean what is it a club like the Knights of Columbus or something? I don't get it (laughing). We are all really individuals, whether we like it or not, and the more we get to respect ourselves, we are all so much more wonderful when we are all different from one another, instead of all just the same. It's different now because I wear a tie. I walk in a room and I'm completely different than anybody in the room.

AAJ: You're a trendsetter.

TB: Yeah, I have a tie. I'm the one with the tie on (laughing).

AAJ: How much of an emphasis to you place in giving back to the community?

TB: You've got to do that. I mean look, what a dream. I started out during the depression in a little blue collar town called Astoria, which is right outside of New York City and all the workers of the city, everybody, the teachers, secretaries, stage hands, they all live in Astoria. I've just acquired seventy million dollars from New York City to build a school of performing arts, the Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts and we have you know Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Carol Burnett, Harry Belafonte, Wynton Marsalis and Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, we have all these wonderful artists that contribute, that are going to be advisors to the school and that's what performers are really for, just to lift everyone's spirit up and participate in helping everybody. It's a public school, but students have to audition to get in, but we are going to show them how to really perform well so when they go out, they know what they are talking about.

AAJ: You've said in a previous interview that you're only as good as your next performance.

TB: Yeah, the last one's gone. It's the next one that counts.

AAJ: And when this journey comes to a close, what would you like your legacy to be?

TB: Well, I am going to quote Basie on that one. They asked him the same question and I kind of believe his philosophy. He said, "All I wanted to be is known as a nice guy."

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