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Other authors named Tony:
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Author's popularity: 3
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Popularity: 4
Vote: | I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I've been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've been sold out all over the world. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Intimate singing had a wonderful style in the '30s and '40s. It came out of Broadway and the jazz of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. But Sinatra created the best romantic era that we've ever had. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | My favorite song is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" because it's become my signature song. I sang it for six American presidents and five command performances... it's made me a world citizen. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | The young people look great on television. They're youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven't got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | To work is to feel alive. |
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Biography
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Tony Bennett (born August 13, 1926) is an American popular music and jazz singer who is widely considered to be one of the best interpretative singers in these genres.
After having achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1950s and early 1960s, his career suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. However, Bennett staged a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, expanding his audience to a younger generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s.
Tony Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter.
Early life
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in the Astoria section of Queens in New York City. His father was a grocer and his mother a seamstress.
He grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and Joe Venuti. An uncle was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business.
By age 10 the young Benedetto was already singing, performing at the opening of the Triborough Bridge.
He attended New York's High School of Industrial Arts where he studied music and painting (an interest he would always return to as an adult), but dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He then set his sights on a professional singing career.
This was interrupted when Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II. He served in a combat position in the 63rd Infantry Division in France and Germany, until some remarks he made against racial segregation led to his being reassigned. (http://www.military.com/Careers/Content1?file=trans_tony_bennett.htm&area=Content)
Subsequently he sang with the Army military band and studied music at Heidelberg University.
Upon his discharge from the Army in 1946 he studied at the American Theater Wing on the GI Bill and, adopting the stage name Joe Bari, continued to sing whenever he could, including while waiting tables. He developed an unusual style of phrasing that involved imitating other musicians – such as Stan Getz's saxophone or Art Tatum's piano – as he sang, thus allowing him to improvise as he interpreted a song.
In 1949 Pearl Bailey spotted his talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show; Hope decided to bring Benedetto on the road with him, but suggested he use his real name simplified to Tony Bennett. In 1950 Bennett cut a demo and was signed to Columbia Records by Mitch Miller.
...(more on Wikipedia)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tony Bennett".
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