Tony Bennett Centennial Concerts Celebrate an Unrivaled Songbook

This past Monday, August 3rd, marked the 100th birthday of the great singer — and quintessential American cultural landmark — Tony Bennett. He died only three years ago and thus almost made it to his own centennial. There were two major events in the New York clubs on the day: Billy Stritch, the versatile pianist, singer, and musical director who has accompanied virtually everyone in this space, including Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Maye, and, yes, Tony Bennett, at 54 Below, and Elizabeth Bougerol, the vivacious vocalist and frontwoman of The Hot Sardines, one of the more highly-entertaining jazz groups playing today, at Joe’s Pub.The fascinating thing is that Tony left us such a vast catalog of music. I have never attempted to quantify it myself, but Ms. Bougerol gave us the number of 70 albums. Therefore it was possible for two very different artists, probably not aware of each other, to come up with two tribute programs and randomly not duplicate a single song—except one. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration; not surprisingly both shows contained the number that Tony described as his theme song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Tony himself would have objected if either show had left it out, but they each gave it to us in two entirely different ways: Mr. Stritch sang the full verse and chorus in an intimate, quartet rendition of Marty Manning’s iconic 1962 arrangement while the Joe’s Pub show began with pianist Matt Ray playing a scaled down, solo piano rendition of the chorus as a kind of prelude.The one “optional” song that the two shows had in common was a bit of a surprise: “Firefly.” Cy Coleman, who was soon to become one of Tony’s best friends, and his first partner, lyricist Carolyn Leigh, wrote the song in 1958 and submitted it to producer David Merrick, whom, as Cy told me years later, they had heard was looking for a songwriting team for this forthcoming Broadway adaptation of the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee. The honor of writing the score to what became “Gypsy” soon went to veteran Jule Styne and relative newcomer Stephen Sondheim, but when Merrick passed on Coleman and Leigh, they submitted their song to Tony, who turned it into a top 20 hit single.Over the years “Firefly” became one of Tony’s signatures, and he re-recorded it with such illustrious collaborators as Count Basie (on the “In Person!” album, later in 1958) and Kermit the Frog (on “Muppets Tonight” in 1996 and then on the 1998 album “The Playground”). The authors imagined kids doing a vaudeville act in the ragtime era, so it’s a punchy, fast-moving, two-beat tongue-twister of a tune in which the lyrics come fast and furious, with lots of tricky internal and feminine rhymes. There’s a great video of Tony singing it on his 1966 TV special in which he goes into a Charlie Chaplin walk. Mr. Stritch sang it as a solo, propelled by drummer Eric Halvorson, and Ms. Bougerol, for her part, delivered “Firefly” as a duet with guest singer Kat Edmonson, the two almost seemed like they were trying to outrace each other—singing mostly a capella—as well as accompanist Matt Ray and the rhythm section, which eventually jumped in.Billy Stritch at 54 Below. Bill BoggsNeither show wanted to make a point of parading the Tony Bennett catalog of hits. The real glory was in the deep cuts. Mr. Stritch gave us a lovely reading of “Yesterday I Heard the Rain” (“Esta Tarde Vi Llover”) a Mexican song that Tony built an album around in 1969, and an uptempo “Trolley Song” in the spirit of Tony’s 1965 “Movie Song Album.” Ms. Bougerol started with “Till I Met You,” Tony’s vocal version of a Basie instrumental titled “Corner Pocket,” and then presented her two trombonists, Todd Lonagin and J. Walter Hawkes, in a swinging treatment of “Love For Sale” inspired by Tyree Glenn, one of Tony’s early mentors. It was fascinating how Mr. Stritch and Ms. Bougerol seemed to circle around each other. They each did different selections from the 1966 “A Time for Love” album; he chose the title song, and she rendered “The Very Thought of You” accompanied by Mr. Hawkes on baritone ukulele in a way that recalled Tony’s 1965 “Sweet Lorraine,” itself in tribute to the recently deceased Nat King Cole, with Bobby Hackett playing uke. Mr. Stritch surprised with “All For You,” Tony’s own lyric to Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages,” and Ms. Bougerol and Ms. Edmonson further duetted on the only version of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” that owes more to Tony Bennett and Count Basie than to Henry Higgins and Eliza Dolittle.Billy Stritch at 54 Below. Stephen SorokoffBoth hosts framed their shows around their personal experiences with the late Tony. Mr. Stritch served as his accompanist and musical director for an entire year, near the end of Tony’s career, when he already passed 90 but hadn’t yet begun to wind down — he would finally retire undefeated at the time of his 95th birthday. For her part, Ms. Bougerol related the tale of a formal interview she conducted with the great man circa 1998 in which he sensed both her innate musical talent and desire to perform and encouraged her to make music herself. She obviously realizes how unique and special that was. I will underscore that by stating here and now that in all the dozens of conversations that I had with Tony, he never once told me that I should sing. However, I will say in my own defense that my imitation of Tony’s speaking voice is, at least as good, if not better, than that of Mr. Stritch.Postscript: Billy Stritch is returning on Sunday August 9th in another Tony 100 show, at Dizzy’s in Jazz at Lincoln Center, hosted and produced by Deborah Grace Winer and costarring Debby Boone, Gabrielle Stravelli, and David Marino in addition to Mr. Stritch. Will Friedwald collaborated with Tony Bennett on his 2007 book ‘The Good Life.‘

Tony Bennett Centennial Concerts Celebrate an Unrivaled Songbook

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