![]() When he had a big band behind him, he was easily brassy enough to hold his own. There was always an easy strength, a self-confident baritone underpinning, in his singing. Very often, there was a jovial savvy in his phrasing he’d punch out a note ahead of the beat, as if he couldn’t wait to sing it. He soon revealed a grain in his voice that made it earthy and approachable, downplaying his precision. And he understood that pure virtuosity can keep listeners at a distance. But he wasn’t an old-fashioned crooner his sense of swing was just as strong. As a young man, he showed off his near-operatic range and dynamic control in early recordings like “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” from 1950. He was always unplugged - a simple fact that cannily recharged his career when he played “MTV Unplugged” in 1994.īennett’s voice made the technical challenges of his songs evaporate. ![]() He recorded with orchestras, with major jazz musicians, with big bands and, for more than 50 years, with the pianist and arranger Ralph Sharon and his trio. They’re songs mostly about grown-up love, about courtship, yearning and fulfillment, with elegant rhymes and ingenious melodies that invite a little improvisation. He welcomed them to a repertoire of songs he admired, knew intimately and was happy to share.īennett sang vintage pop standards, the pre-rock canon sometimes called the Great American Songbook. Instead, he let listeners - and, in recent decades, much younger duet partners - come to him, generation after generation. He didn’t chase trends he didn’t get defensive, either. Throughout a career that began in the 1940s, Bennett, who died on Friday at 96, maintained one mission, amiably and unswervingly. Has there ever been a more purely likable pop figure than Tony Bennett? Tony Bennett and Billy Joel performing during the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002.
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