Thoughts On DeBenedetto…

I saw Tony Bennett several times in concert.

He was a study on stage.

I likened him to an opera singer who could sing through a boxer’s body. It was like he understood his own interior acoustics. It was like he was singing the sweetest sound through a bent and dented horn.

There was a sublimely elegant clumsiness to his voice.

He never let you be in an expected space. He would direct a note or phrase “there” when you reflexively expected him to go “here”. Each unexpected change was like being tickled. He playfully kept you in on the joke.

Bennett practiced bel canto singing which is an opera influenced practice that kept his voice in shape. This showed in his range, his projection, and his longevity. I saw him one night in the Hollywood Bowl. My friends and I were sitting far back in the cheap seats. At one point he said, “This is for all of you in the back row!” He then sang in acapella the slowest and sweetest version of “Fly Me to the Moon”

Learning that this was his practice made a lot of sense to me. His phrasing is as good if not better than Sinatra’s. I feel that he took more risks than Sinatra. His work with Gil Evans is outstanding. And he always seemed to really enjoy what he was doing.

Bennett’s singing voice was never far from his speaking voice. The sound of his upbringing infused. Again this was a difference in comparison to Sinatra whose singing voice was more smoother and refined compared to his Jersey influenced speaking voice.

Lastly, and I am surprised that more critics don’t pick up on this. Sinatra came out of a big band era. Bennett came out of a post-war bebop era. Sinatra was a microphone. Bennett was an instrument. Bennett could sing in intimate settings with small groups. Besides a singer he was also an instrument. Sinatra flamed early and mostly lost his relevance because he couldn’t adapt to small settings. He became as anachronistic and pallid as the arrangements were behind him.

Because of this, I wince at the obits who say Bennett was the last of the “crooners”

It says a lot about Bennett and the artistic choices he made. And he was incredibly generous.

I heard some say that there always seems to be a smile in his voice.

Molte bene’, brother!

Thanks for being a bright light!