The Man Who Conjured the Evergreen into Tomorrow's Encore

Article by Rik Raats / Photo by Peter Chiapperino

Tony Bennett not only made the world embrace San Francisco (which he decorated with his landmark 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco')—way beyond all his accolades and achievements he genuinely demonstrated that style never goes out of fashion. Even more, he charmingly invited people—beyond the constraints of age, culture, and demographics—to become part of his world of jazz, class, and state-of-the-art musicality.

His Touch of Genuine Magic

He inspired younger artists to jump into his cocktail of sharing the mood-at-the-right-tempo. He built an invitingly inspirational stage that brings jazz to the future in its purest shape. He knew like no other how to awaken the jazz that lives in all of us. He gave artists the opportunity to open up a new dimension in their persona and widen their audiences by exposing themselves in a truer-than-authenticity duet with him. He gave them an eternal touch of genuine magic.

Learning It the Hard Way

Tony Bennett himself learned the hard way that true elegance and class never can be traded for temporary fashion and trends. He refused and even failed when the music industry forced him into a popular seventies format. Eventually, his roots, his style, and pristine skill saved him.

When he got financially crippled in the early seventies by old tax debt and no new record deal or other opportunities on the horizon, he landed back on his feet with the help of his son, Danny Bennett, who made him find the way back to his own greatness. 

He Was the Personification of Style

His style, his music, his persona. He remains with us as the man who could sell the world a feeling, a grand classy mood that we will always revisit. The man whose signature lives in the ears of our minds. Listen to how even his photo fills the air with a flair that makes you fall in love with the grandeur of charm and swing.

The Evergreen—reinventing an industry by exposing its authentic soul

It's precisely that hard-to-grasp feeling that makes us long for more. Great showmanship; the master of the encore. His legacy lives on in the many young musicians all around the planet who got their Jazz started by listening to one of his giant collabs with young artists.

He revived a music culture by sticking to its true authentic natural ingredients because he knew like no other that only the genuine original is the secret to tomorrow's success. His work with Diane Krall, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood, Christina Aguilera, and many more is characterized by preserving the pure spirit of the style and genre while bringing it as fresh as a handpicked flower in the buttonhole of the lapel.

He proved that authenticity sheds a magical light.

Thank you, Tony