Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926) is an American popular music, standards, and jazz singer who is widely considered to be one of the best interpretative singers in these genres.

No retirement

Since then Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily. In concert Bennett often makes a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating to younger audience members the lost art of vocal projection. One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first, of the A&E Network's Live By Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award.

Related Topics:
Fly Me to the Moon - PBS - A&E Network - Emmy Award

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A series of albums, often based on themes (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, duets) have met with good acceptance; Bennett has won five more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammies in the subsequent years, most recently in 2003. According to his official biography, Bennett has now sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career.

Related Topics:
Duke Ellington - Louis Armstrong - Billie Holiday - Blues - Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

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In addition to numerous television guest performances, Bennett has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty.

Related Topics:
Cameo appearance - The Scout - Analyze This - Bruce Almighty

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Tony Bennett's career as a painter has also flourished. He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he is on tour. Painting under his real name of Benedetto, he has exhibited his work in numerous galleries and has been commissioned by the Kentucky Derby and the United Nations. His painting "Homage to Hockney" (for his friend David Hockney) is on permanent display at the highly regarded Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio as is his "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York. His paintings have been featured in ARTNews and other magazines. Many of his works were published in the art book Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996.

Related Topics:
Kentucky Derby - United Nations - David Hockney - Butler Institute of American Art - Youngstown, Ohio - National Arts Club - Gramercy Park - ARTNews

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Bennett also published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett in 1998.

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For his contribution to the recording industry, Tony Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

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Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997.

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Bennett received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002.

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In 2002 Q magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

Related Topics:
2002 - ''Q'' magazine - 50 Bands To See Before You Die

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Bennett frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he is sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit". http://www.osia.org/public/newsroom/pr05_13_99.asp

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Bennett has not remarried, but has a long-term relationship with Susan Crow, a former New York City educator. Together they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts which opened in 2001. It was a tribute in return, for in a 1965 Life magazine interview Sinatra had said that:

Related Topics:
Educator - Life

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:"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."

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Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.

Related Topics:
Recording engineer - Englewood, New Jersey

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Bennett will be a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.

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