Two Memorable Tributes Strike Up the Centennial of Tony Bennett

Early in his show, “Because of You — My Tribute to Tony Bennett,” Michael Feinstein tells the audience of a conversation he had with Tony Bennett in which they were talking about a certain song, it almost doesn’t matter which. Mr. Feinstein said, “Yes, that’s a really great one.” To which, the then still-living legend replied, “Hey, I don’t sing any bad songs!”That sounds very much like the Tony Bennett I knew and loved for many years. Not once did I ever hear him claim to be a great singer, although he was one of the absolute greatest. (The closest he ever came to bragging was once letting me know that a collection of his paintings were being exhibited in a prestigious gallery.) He never even took credit for having great musical taste, but if you ever pressed him to explain why, from his perspective, his musical career was so successful and so enduring, he would always have the same answer: “Because I stuck with great songs.” In his view, that was the sole reason; never mind that any of a thousand other singers, even good ones, could sing those same songs and never get anywhere with them.In celebrating the Tony Bennett centennial — a mere three years after he left us in 2023—two top tier male vocalists and instrumentalists are presenting programs in his honor. John Pizzarelli has a new album, “Dear Mr. Bennett,” and he recently performed that repertoire at Birdland. Mr. Feinstein is touring with his tribute show; he played the Kupferberg Center for the Arts on Saturday and there’s also a live video of him doing that program at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Hopefully that too will become an album.Both artists do a few of the same songs, including early, in the two shows, Cy Coleman’s “The Best is Yet to Come.” They also both build to Bennett’s most-identifiable hit, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” But along the way, each of these two artists open up the larger Tony Bennett catalog to concentrate on their own specialities. Mr. Pizzarelli leans into the jazz aspects of Tony Bennett’s career, with three songs from Bennett’s legendary collaboration with the great pianist Bill Evans: “Young and Foolish,” “When in Rome,” and the pianist’s own “Waltz for Debby.” Both the album and the Birdland set utilizes his current trio, with himself on guitar plus pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Michael Karn. This musical threesome, which has been together for almost five years, is quite possibly the best that Mr. Pizzarelli has ever led. Although still very young — he turns 29 next month — Mr. Thompson keeps with his leader in terms of both elegant, soulful harmonies and a hard-driving beat, while Mr. Karn continues to keep the threesome in the same groove as the classic King Cole Trio, echoing Johnny Miller and Joe Comfort.Mr. Feinstein too has a standout, long-running trio, co-starring pianist Tedd Firth, bassist David Finck, and drummer Mark McLean. Mr. Feinstein himself occasionally adds to the intimacy by doing several numbers accompanying himself at the piano, such as “Once Upon a Time.” That Tony Bennett perennial, introduced in the 1962 flop musical “All American,” also illustrates how Mr. Feinstein concentrated on the Broadway side of the Bennett canon, as he further demonstrated with “Strike Up the Band,” “Stranger in Paradise,” and “Who Can I Turn To?” On the live video edition of this concert, filmed at the Segerstrom Center, Mr. Feinstein ratchets up the excitement further by adding an entire jazz orchestra, billed as the Carnegie Hall Big Band; “Sing You Sinners,” featured high powered solos by the 25-year-old rising trumpet star Kellin Hanas and tenor saxophonist Sam Dillon. Mr. Pizzarelli’s album, which features a sketch of the singer-guitarist originally done on a cocktail napkin by Tony Bennett, is also highlighted by an outstanding, nearly-five minute version of another Bennett signature, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote this as their version of an Argentine tango, even though it was for a 1934 movie musical titled “Moulin Rouge” — not connected to the current Broadway show — that was set in Paris. As one of his very first recordings, Tony recast it as a high-energy, big, belting quasi-operatic number. Mr. Pizzarelli scales it way down, making it into something more Brazilian than Argentine, with generous solos by Mr. Thompson and Mr. Karn.The sketch of John Pizzarelli drawn by Tony Bennett. Green Hill MusicMr. Feinstein also shined on an ingenious match up of two songs celebrating Bennett’s status as an almost-lifelong New Yorker, using Rodgers & Hart as a frame for Billy Joel with “Manhattan” and “New York State of Mind.” (One wishes Carnegie had brought in Mr. Feinstein to sing this last week at their Billy Joel Tribute.) This program, produced under the aegis of Carnegie Hall, where Mr. Feinstein continues to do an ongoing concert series, with the next program scheduled for April 15. Later in April he will tour the midwest.In addition to both Mr. Pizzarelli and Mr. Feinstein including “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Mr. Feinstein also gave us Bennett’s big hit of 1963, “I Wanna Be Around,” complete with the almost mythic account of the saleslady and housewife in Youngstown, Ohio, who conceived the song and prompted Johnny Mercer to write it. For decades, Tony Bennett would sing a medley of those two hits. It worked amazingly well, despite how those two songs have nothing in common: one is praising love in a famous city, the other is a spiteful tale of karmic retribution. But Tony forged them together and made them work as a cohesive whole through the sheer force of his will. I’m grateful to both Mr. Feinstein and Mr. Pizzarelli for enabling me to revisit my memories of seeing Tony Bennett dozens of times in concert, and reminding us that for the late, great singer, creating a musical miracle was all in a day’s work.Will Friedwald collaborated with Tony Bennett on his 2007 book “The Good Life.”

Two Memorable Tributes Strike Up the Centennial of Tony Bennett

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