It’s too bad that the late Russell Johnson, the famed acoustician whose legacy can be heard by anyone who’s ever attended a concert at the Meyerson Symphony Center, isn’t buried inside the hall (despite some claims to the contrary). I’d like to think he was close at hand as the legendary Tony Bennett paid the ultimate tribute to Johnson’s work during a performance Monday night.
As he neared the end of his show at the Meyerson, Bennett put down his microphone and belted out a beautiful rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that sounded as clear and crisp from where I sat near the back of the hall as any song in the program. The 83-year-old singer had prefaced the number by explaining that jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis had told him that the Meyerson is one of the two best concert halls in the world, in terms of acoustics. So Bennett decided to demonstrate just how great a venue it is.
It was as that song rose to its big finish—and the crowd jumped to its feet for what must have been the third or fourth standing ovation during the concert—that it occurred to me that “singer” isn’t the most fitting description for Bennett. He is a showman. To spend an hour and a half listening to Bennett croon one classic after another is to take a journey across the American songbook, and there surely could be no more self-assured guide through George Gershwin and Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Motown.
The guy is a pro. I mentioned the unusually high number of standing ovations—Bennett seemed able to conjure the audience to its feet at will. With a simple saluting gesture from his hand and a rise in the house lights, the crescendo of applause became irresistible, and I too found myself standing.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that he knows how to please a crowd. After all, he’s been working at his art for more than 60 years, and he’s got the well-worn anecdotes to prove it. From the story of how Bob Hope gave him his stage name (his birth name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto) to claiming that he and Rosemary Clooney were “the original American Idols,” Bennett doesn’t miss a chance to reminisce. (In a funny aside in the middle of “The Good Life,” he said “I want to dedicate this song to Lady Gaga.”)
His daughter Antonia performed a few tunes as the show’s opening act and then introduced her father as “one lucky guy.” Sure enough his first song out of the gate was “You’re a Lucky Guy.” As rehearsed as that segue clearly was, I got the impression throughout the concert that Bennett genuinely feels that luck has been important in the course of his own life. I know I count myself lucky to have had a chance to see this master performer at work.
