We had the opportunity to see Tony live in April 2008 at 30 Rock in NYC (thanks to my friends at NBC Universal for the tickets!) It was for the Elvis Costello hosted Spectacle show on the Sundance Channel (from which yesterday's post was taken). The format was an hour long interview interspersed with musical numbers.
Tony was 81 at the time and made it clear, in a very charming way, that he was running the show, and not his friend Elvis. If he felt like answering Elvis' questions he did; if he didn't he just talked about whatever he felt like talking about and Elvis was happy to let him roam. Bennett may be the most relaxed human being I've ever seen. Of course, as he said to Elvis, when his son became his manager more than 20 years ago it freed him up to spend all his time doing the two things he loves - singing and painting. Painting? Yeah:
Tony's voice is not what it once was and when he started his first song "The Way You Look Tonight" my immediate thought was "wow, his voice is really shot" and then things quickly changed and by the end I was thinking "wow, his voice may be weaker but this guy really knows how to sing a song". It was just beautiful.
Did I mention that Tony was running the show? We were on the set used for Saturday Night Live but they closed about 2/3 for this taping so it was a pretty intimate setting with only about 150 of us in the audience. We were in the third (and last) row to the left of the stage and noticed after sitting down that we were right behind Diana Krall, the jazz singer who's married to Elvis. We heard her mention to the person next to her that she hadn't played at all since the birth of her twins six months before so I think she was genuinely surprised when Tony called her out of the audience to play and sing with him. Here it is.
A wonderful night. Thanks, Mr Bennett.
Wow, that must have been especially beautiful in person. Just what I needed today. Grazie! dm
ReplyDelete