Tony bennett singer age

Bennett left Columbia in the early s and soon founded his own label, Improv. By the end of the decade, Improv was out of business, and Bennett had stopped recording. Having moved to Los Angeles, he began using cocaine and marijuana, drugs that were an integral part of the celebrity party scene. With help from his oldest son, Danny, who became his personal manager, Bennett was able to put his personal and professional lives back together.

The singer re-signed with Columbia records, and in , he released The Art of Excellence, his first studio album in nearly 10 years. In , Bennett teamed up with k. Lang to record A Wonderful World. The album netted Bennett another Grammy, for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and established a standard for collaboration that would mark this late stage of his career.

The project proved such a success that he created another celebratory album in , Duets II , with performances from Aretha Franklin , Carrie Underwood , Willie Nelson , and others. On its release, Duets II also hit No. Also in , his fans were treated to an inside look into the recording of Duets II and the life of the legendary singer in the documentary The Zen of Bennett.

Later that year, Bennett released his next recording, Viva Duets. The Latin-themed album featured songs in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with contributions from such famed talents as Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan. Despite now being well into his 80s, Bennett lined up a series of concerts to promote this latest album. From their collaboration on Duets II , Bennett and Lady Gaga struck up a friendship and continued working together for several years.

The only guy who ever did that was Bing Crosby , years ago. A pared-down effort in comparison with his recent high-profile duos, the album nevertheless achieved a similar result by claiming the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy in Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long Perry Presents. In , the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director.

The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Bennett's leanings towards jazz. In , Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist, arranger, and musical director, [ 43 ] replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" would not last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.

The result was the album The Beat of My Heart. The album was both popular and critically praised. Bennett also built up the quality and, therefore, the reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era. Carnegie Hall had not featured a male pop performer until then only Judy Garland one year before that.

It was a big success and like Garland's, the concert was recorded for posterity, further cementing Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more. Also in , Bennett released his recording of " I Left My Heart in San Francisco ", a decade-old but little-known song originally written for an opera singer.

Over the years, this would become known as Bennett's signature song. Bennett's following album, I Wanna Be Around The next year brought the Beatles and the British Invasion , and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years, Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes ; his last top single was the number 34 " If I Ruled the World " from the musical Pickwick in , [ 39 ] but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline.

An attempt to break into acting with a role in the poorly received film The Oscar met with middling reviews for Bennett; he did not enjoy the experience and did not seek further roles. Bennett refused to perform in apartheid South Africa. Ralph Sharon and Bennett parted ways in Years later, Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress.

Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv. As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing many concerts outside of Las Vegas. After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in , Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. Danny and Dae's band, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends , had floundered and the former realized he was not musically talented but had a head for business.

His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent, but had trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father's manager. Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York City, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from a "Vegas" image.

This became his first album to reach the charts since Danny Bennett felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance. Cole Porter , Gershwin —they were like, 'Who wrote that? If you're different, you stand out. During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look-back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist , then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Bennett's first Grammys since and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.

He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises. He had no intention of retiring, saying in reference to masters such as Pablo Picasso , Jack Benny , and Fred Astaire : "right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older. In , Bennett performed on the final day of a mud-soaked Glastonbury Festival in an immaculate suit and tie, [ 70 ] his whole set on this occasion consisting of songs about the weather.

His autobiography The Good Life was also first published in A series of albums, often based on themes such as Duke Ellington , Louis Armstrong , Billie Holiday , blues , or duets , met with largely positive reviews. For his contribution to the recording industry, Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Vine Street. Bennett frequently donated his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he was sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit".

Danny Bennett continued to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who worked on a number of Tony's projects and who opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey in , now shuttered due to the downturn of major label budgets combined with skyrocketing overhead. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer who opened shows for her father.

On August 3, , Bennett turned 80 years old. His record label celebrated by releasing reissues, compilations, and the album Duets: An American Classic , which reached his highest chart position ever and won a Grammy Award. Bush personally told him at the Kennedy Center in December that he felt he had made a mistake invading Iraq , to which a Bush spokesperson replied, "This account is flatly wrong.

My life experiences, ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King , made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior. In September , Bennett released Duets II , a follow-up to his first collaboration album, in conjunction with his 85th birthday.

The album then debuted at number one on the Billboard , making Bennett the oldest living artist to reach that top spot, as well as marking the first time he had reached it himself. In the wake of the premature deaths of Winehouse and Whitney Houston , Bennett called for the legalization of drugs in February In September , Bennett performed for the first time in Israel, with his jazz quartet at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv , receiving a standing ovation.

On August 19, , shortly after his 90th birthday, Bennett was honored by the unveiling of an 8-foot tall statue in his likeness in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Bennett had first sung the song at the hotel in Bennett's final album, Love for Sale , another collaborative record with Lady Gaga, was released on September 30, The record received generally favorable reviews, and debuted at number eight in the United States.

Bennett's final live performances were on August 3 and 5, , when he presented a pair of shows with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall. On August 12, , nine days after his 95th birthday, Bennett's retirement from concerts was announced by his son and manager Danny Bennett. Danny stated that though his father remained a capable singer, he was becoming physically frail and risked a major fall if he continued touring.

The special was filmed the previous July in front of an intimate studio audience in New York City, and included duets from Love for Sale. Despite his retirement, as of early , Bennett still continued to rehearse with his music director three times a week, Danny Bennett said in an interview. Bennett also had success as a painter, done under his real name of Anthony Benedetto, or just Benedetto.

He sketched or painted every day, often of views out of hotel windows when he was on tour. He exhibited his work in numerous galleries around the world.

Tony bennett singer age

I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment.

This is classical music. Bennett won 20 Grammy Awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award , [ ] [ ] as follows years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the recording was released :. Bennett released over 70 albums during his career, almost all for Columbia Records.

The biggest selling of these in the U. On February 12, , [ ] Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan , New York, in mock mourning. Bennett had become involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant while filming The Oscar in The couple lived together for several years and on December 29, , they quietly married in New York.

In the late s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow, a former New York City schoolteacher. Bennett and Crow founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time, they founded and named after Bennett's friend the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts.

The school opened in and has a very high graduation rate. The experience of growing up in the Great Depression and a distaste for the effects of the presidency of Herbert Hoover would make Bennett a lifelong Democrat. Bennett's twice-weekly singing practices are thought to have kept his brain stimulated and spared him from symptoms such as disorientation, depression, and a detachment from reality.

In announcing Bennett's retirement in August , Danny Bennett stated that the Alzheimer's was mainly affecting his father's short-term memory and that he would often forget he had just performed after a concert; his long-term memory remained intact and he could still remember all the lyrics to his repertoire when performing. Bennett died at his home in New York City on July 21, , following a seven-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.

His family said he kept singing to the end, lastly " Because of You ". Bennett was interred alongside his parents at Calvary Cemetery, Queens. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American singer — This article is about the American singer.

For other people with the same name, see Tony Bennett disambiguation. Patricia Beech. Sandra Grant. Traditional pop show tunes swing jazz easy listening big band. Musical artist. Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Artistry [ edit ]. Painting [ edit ]. Musical style [ edit ]. Awards and legacy [ edit ]. Works [ edit ]. Discography [ edit ]. Main article: Tony Bennett discography.

Books [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Politics [ edit ]. Illness and death [ edit ]. Tony explained: "Bob asked me what my real name was. A new Americanised name — the start of a wonderful career and a glorious adventure that has continued for 70 years. Painting prior to the Frank Sinatra th birthday tribute show tonight in Las Vegas.

Looking forward to a great night! See more Latest Music News. Spandau Ballet. Phil Collins. Diana Ross. See more Latest Features. Song Facts. Rod Stewart. Happy New Year's everyone, everywhere! Tony Bennett was born on August 3, He celebrated his 95th birthday in August My mother, Anna Benedetto, worked grueling hours as a seamstress during the Depression.

Her hard work inspired my dream: to become successful enough that my mom would never have to work again. Happy Mother's Day, here's to all the ladies! Tony Bennett's childhood home was in the Astoria section of Queens where he was born into an Italian-American family. Tony Bennett had four children: two sons and two daughters. Danny, Antonia, Dae and Joanna Bennett.

In a social media post to celebrate performing for 70 years, Tony wrote: "70 years since my career began, and the thrill of performing has never wavered. Thank you all for your countless years of support and love.