By John Fulmer The Sun Herald

By John Fulmer THE SUN HERALD

TONY

Bennett’s on the phone. The voice is unmistakable. Smokey, just a tad like sandpaper. But somehow still smooth. And sleepy. It’s noon but he’s just awakened in his room at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica where he’s playing a date. We’re doing an interview for Bennett’s May 11 concert at the Biloxi Grand Theatre, a benefit for the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. “I’m in Mississippi,” he says and his voice implies that he’s just around the corner. That distances between people are small. He sounds amazed, too, at what he’s found here. He starts talking about the number and size of casinos in Tunica. “They’re huge. It’s pretty wild.” Bennett explains that his son Danny, who’s also his manager, got him the date: “He always puts me in the best places.” Lest you think that a father hiring a son as manager is a blatant case of nepotism, consider that Danny Bennett engineered an incredible marketing job by turning his 72 year-old father into an MTV icon. Bennett did his part, too. As his popularity surged, he remained cool without turning into a parody of an aging hipster. This was, after all, a man who in 1971 walked away from a 20-year relationship with Columbia Records. Bennett refused to sing rock, disco or country. In 1979, Danny Bennett took over and re-signed his father to Columbia a few years later. But Bennett, who’d always toured, was a long way from the kind of hit records -- “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged” and “Perfectly Frank” -- that he’s scored

SINGER TO JAZZ UP GRAND BENEFIT

Bennett

Sony Records

Columbia Records

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IN CONCERT WHO: Tony Bennett WHAT: Benefit Concert for the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra WHERE: Biloxi Grand Theatre WHEN: 8 p.m. May 11 COST: $50 floor; $40 balcony TICKETS: (800) WIN-2-WIN;Ticketmaster (800) 409-9959 DETAILS: Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra 875-2310

with recently. But don’t call it a comeback. Bennett won’t attach that word to his recent run of success. Call it faith. Bennett stuck with Gershwin and Cole Porter when some of his contemporaries embarrassed themselves by following trends. Bennett’s ‘90s success story has often been told, See Bennett, nnett, page H4 nnett

BENNETT, FROM PAGE H1 and it’s one that, at first glance, defies explanation. Other singers of his generation remained true to jazz and standards, but Bennett seemed destined to carry the flame. In fact, destiny, is a word that Bennett uses often. He uses it to describe Billie Holiday, one of three artists, along with Edith Piaf and Hank

Williams, he mentions in the same breath. “Somehow they became autobiographical. Listening to them was like reading a biography. She sang songs that explained herself,” he says. “They were true artists. They had a true destiny, unlike artists who were just trying to sell something.” “On Holiday,” Bennett’s third tribute album -- his priors were Sinatra and Fred Astaire -- is a paean to a singer he first met in a Philadelphia nightclub some 40 years ago. He was an up-andcomer with a string of hits (“I was the Madonna of my day,” he says) and Holiday asked him to sing. “But my table discouraged me,” he says. “It’s a shame, something I always regretted. We could have a beautiful jam session.” Bennett, a career optimist, sees a silver lining in Holiday’s tragic life. In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, Bennett studied New York’s 52nd Street jazz scene and recalls a different Holi-

day, a singer who hit her peak before a welldocumented fall into drugs and dissolution. “When she was young, she sang a lot of optimistic, happy songs,” says Bennett. His voice raises somewhat in anger or frustration as he notes the skewed media focus on Holiday’s life. “They say the same thing about Frank Sinatra, that he’s on his deathbed. Frank’s my best friend, and I can tell you he’s in a mellow mood and he’s going to live a long time,” Bennett says. “It’s tragic. They just do this to sell papers.” Bennett remembers a Billie Holiday strolling into a club and jamming with other largerthan-life artists -- folks like Basie, Lester Young, George Shearing and Stan Getz. It was no contest, Bennett says. A carnival-sized crowd gathered on the sidewalk to hear Lady Day. “When Billie showed up there would be an overflow, it was like Mardi Gras,” says Bennett. On this latest album, Bennett finally gets a chance to duet with Holiday. Through studio magic, Bennett and Holiday are reunited on her signature song, “God Bless the Child.” Super producer Phil

‘Somehow they became autobiographical. Listening to them was like reading a biography. She sang songs that explained herself. They were true artists. They had a true destiny, unlike artists who were just trying to sell something.’ Tony Bennett—on Billie Holiday, Hank Williams and Edith Piaf

Ramone found an old recording of Holiday and Basie and spliced Bennett in; Bennett says he was pleased with the results and that it brought back some old memories. “I liked it very much. I was the first white singer to sing with Count Basie,” he said. “Doing this together was dynamite.” Perhaps that’s what Bennett means by destiny: to be part of an artistic reunion that had to wait 40 years. It seems that Bennett’s life follows the old adage that good things come to those who wait. But it still doesn’t explain Bennett’s cross-generational appeal. Why is he hot and Perry Como a wet match? Why is Bennett cool and why was Pat Boone never cool? What made Bennett a hit for 50 years? Elizabeth Raley, a board member with the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra and community relations representative with the Grand, says the symphony wanted an upscale performer, a bigname draw. Last year, they booked Natalie Cole for the symphony benefit. Cole did two-nights and the Grand and the symphony split the proceeds. They wanted a similar deal this year. Tony Bennett’s name came up. Raley says: “We wanted him real bad.” But he was “so expensive,” says Raley and Bennett would only book for one night. Still, they grabbed him. `The Grand booked him for us, but its totally a symphony event,” says Raley. Despite Bennett’s big price tag, the symphony hopes to get from $20,000 to $25,000 through its sponsorships. Raley says the $1,500 sponsorships have sold out and only three $500 sponsorships remain. As of last week, about 300 individual seats were unsold, but Raley is “absolutely sure” of a sell out. Raley says the big question was whether the orchestra would back Bennett, but synchronizing the dates and setting up rehearsals would have been too difficult, she says, and Bennett will perform with his own ensemble. In the end, Raley has the answer for that old Bennett magic. “Tony Bennett is, like, hot,” said Raley.

Factoring the Intangible A Wall Street Journal article, “The Tony Bennett Factor,” offers a clue to the singer’s newfound popularity. The author, Marianne M. Jennings, studied business longevity, looking into eight companies that had paid investment dividends for 100 years or more. She applied the principals of their business success to Bennett :

• They were low-cost producers. (All Mr. Bennett needs are a microphone and a pianist to make music.) • Continuity and stability (Mr. Bennett has used the same musical director—Ralph Sharon—for nearly 30 years.) • Customer service. (Mr. Bennett has always spent time on the road in concert, in direct contact with audiences—no mega tours, just constant gigs.) • They knew their strengths and stuck with them (Mr. Bennett never performed without singing `I Wanna Be Around,’ Jennings said.) • Integrity (Mr. Bennett has never made a bad recording or disappointed an audience during a live performance.) That’s all true, but could be said of other performers as well. When figuring the Tony Bennett “factor,” figure in the intangible. Call it class, call it soul, call it style. Whatever you call it, Bennett’s got it. And it doesn’t come cheap. Bennett will command $75,000 for his show at the Grand.