Tony Bennett, the last of the great American crooners, appreciated for his warm personality and his consistency over more than seven decades, died Friday at the age of 96, we learned from his agent.
“He passed away today at the age of 96 in his hometown of New York,” Sylvia Weiner, his agent, told AFP. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, a diagnosis that dated back to 2016.
A singer from another era, that of crooners like Frank Sinatra, he marked the history of American popular music with his unique longevity, he who had experienced a return to favor in the 1980s and 1990s, then distinguished himself again by his duets with Amy Winehouse and especially Lady Gaga, with whom he had recorded two albums in 2014 and 2021.
The first of these two duets, “Cheek to Cheek”, made Bennett the oldest artist, at 88, with a number 1 album on the Billboard 200, the reference chart in the United States.
Many personalities have paid tribute to him, from US President Joe Biden — “for more than 70 years, Tony Bennett did not just sing classics, he was an American classic himself” — to Sir Elton John, for whom he was “without a doubt the classiest singer, man and performer”.
Born on August 3, 1926 in Astoria, in the most cosmopolitan neighborhood of New York, Anthony Benedetto, his real name, grew up there during the period of the Great Depression.
Trained in bel canto, the one who called himself Joe Bari at the very beginning of his career will, thanks to his technique, keep his voice intact throughout his life, capable of pushing the decibels into the stadiums, at 80 years old.
Always impeccable costumes, cover, natural elegance, Tony Bennett embodied the song of the post-war period, without falling into old-fashionedness, and without ever, however, leaving its register.
Few classics remain of him, unlike Frank Sinatra, another son of Italian immigrants from the New York area, to whom he has been much compared but whose success was far superior. One of his hits, “I left my heart in San Francisco”, earned him his first Grammy Awards in 1963.
Tony Bennett, who adopted the Americanized stage name suggested to him by comedian Bob Hope, has retained a loyal following, maintained through thousands of concerts and his stage presence.
Little focused on effects, her voice seemed to go straight to the point, influenced by various musical genres, notably jazz.
“As a spectator, (I think) Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business”, Frank Sinatra will say. “He excites me when I see him, he moves me”.
His smile and his energy projected the image of a warm, resolutely positive artist.
The man who lost his father at 10 and served in the US military in France and Germany during World War II also opposed racial segregation in the United States, and joined the famous marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 to defend civil rights.
Despite a loyal audience, Tony Bennett will experience a crossing of the desert during the 70s and 80s, a bad patch marked by a cocaine addiction and an overdose, in 1979, from which he will survive.
His son Danny will eventually intervene and offer him a second career by introducing him to a younger audience.
In 1994, he landed on the MTV music channel for an “Unplugged”, this series of acoustic concerts rather reserved for young artists in vogue.
In 2006, he released the album “Duets: An American Classic”, a series of duets with very big names in popular music, from Stevie Wonder to Bono, who accompanied him on covers.
The success is total, to the point that a second opus “Duets II”, will be released in 2011, with, again, the gratin of the song, which will allow him to hang for the first time the peak of record sales in the United States, at 85 years old.
The album contains his first duets with Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse.
For seven decades, he followed Frank Sinatra’s advice: “Never be predictable”.
Despite illness, Tony Bennett had continued to perform and record. His last appearance was in August 2021 for two concerts at Radio City Music Hall in New York, in duet with Lady Gaga, and entitled “One Last Time” (“One last time”).
7/22/2023 00:30:49 – New York (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
