A Tony Bennett Stay-cation
Marisa and I experienced The Tony Bennett Show Friday night at Portland's Schnitzer Auditorium: it was a blast. He had the same combo as in his appearance on American Idol but sans glasses and without the female singer there.
Instead his daughter, Antonia Bennett led the program in Portland with several tunes before bringing Tony on stage. She returned for a duet with him as well.
Tony said he enjoyed playing places like "The Schnitz" more than doing television appearances such as that Fox television show and I think he meant it. He also said he and Rosemary Clooney were once American idols, made part of the Columbia record company hit machine led by Mitch Miller. His story about Miller is typical.
As "A and R" man (Artists and Repertoire) MM had the ability to require musicians to do certain songs but didn't really care that much about the musician's interests but rather the hit potential. So, for instance, MM pushed Rosemary into doing Come On 'A My House as a sort of novelty number. It was a big hit but something she disliked performing.
MM asked Tony to sing a Hank Williams country tune and at first jazz and standards singer Tony refused: "It's nice but it's a country song!" However, when you are starting out you don't turn down the "A and R" man, so Tony did do it with the Mitch Miller and Tony Bennett spin...and it became a hit. Tony says that Hank Williams called later to complain: "What did you do to my song?!"
That, however, was an exception in a long line of recordings where Tony put his impression on standards that defines how we hear those tunes to this day. When he did the song Smile, the tune got a revival from when it was first popular decades earlier. Tony says the song composer, Charlie Chaplin, called him with thanks for re-introducing it.
It was a great evening...with Tony belting out the tunes, Antonia putting her stamp on some standards, and Tony's band serving up great solos: the audience did standing ovations throughout the show from the beginning to the end. Tony lost his place in the program once and during one song he sang "Johnny Mandel wrote this tune" and switched to scat mode until he could rejoin with the lyrics. But, hey, he'll be 85 this August. Frankly, his dancing on stage, overall exhuberance and powerful delivery dwarf any little hitches in performance. It was truly a great concert.
Marisa and I stayed a block away at the Paramount Hotel in room 301. We dined at The East India Bar and Grill at 11th and Taylor (we sat in the middle booth against the wall as seen in the picture on their website). Unfortunately our dinner reservation time of 5:30 also corresponded with a heavy downpour at that very same time...and us without umbrellas! Also, unfortunately, we had a late lunch 2 hours before at Maya's Taqueria...so we couldn't finish our dinners. We got to box up the left overs from dinner and keep them refrigerated in our room and enjoy the food for lunch the next day!
Instead his daughter, Antonia Bennett led the program in Portland with several tunes before bringing Tony on stage. She returned for a duet with him as well.
Tony said he enjoyed playing places like "The Schnitz" more than doing television appearances such as that Fox television show and I think he meant it. He also said he and Rosemary Clooney were once American idols, made part of the Columbia record company hit machine led by Mitch Miller. His story about Miller is typical.
As "A and R" man (Artists and Repertoire) MM had the ability to require musicians to do certain songs but didn't really care that much about the musician's interests but rather the hit potential. So, for instance, MM pushed Rosemary into doing Come On 'A My House as a sort of novelty number. It was a big hit but something she disliked performing.
MM asked Tony to sing a Hank Williams country tune and at first jazz and standards singer Tony refused: "It's nice but it's a country song!" However, when you are starting out you don't turn down the "A and R" man, so Tony did do it with the Mitch Miller and Tony Bennett spin...and it became a hit. Tony says that Hank Williams called later to complain: "What did you do to my song?!"
That, however, was an exception in a long line of recordings where Tony put his impression on standards that defines how we hear those tunes to this day. When he did the song Smile, the tune got a revival from when it was first popular decades earlier. Tony says the song composer, Charlie Chaplin, called him with thanks for re-introducing it.
It was a great evening...with Tony belting out the tunes, Antonia putting her stamp on some standards, and Tony's band serving up great solos: the audience did standing ovations throughout the show from the beginning to the end. Tony lost his place in the program once and during one song he sang "Johnny Mandel wrote this tune" and switched to scat mode until he could rejoin with the lyrics. But, hey, he'll be 85 this August. Frankly, his dancing on stage, overall exhuberance and powerful delivery dwarf any little hitches in performance. It was truly a great concert.
Marisa and I stayed a block away at the Paramount Hotel in room 301. We dined at The East India Bar and Grill at 11th and Taylor (we sat in the middle booth against the wall as seen in the picture on their website). Unfortunately our dinner reservation time of 5:30 also corresponded with a heavy downpour at that very same time...and us without umbrellas! Also, unfortunately, we had a late lunch 2 hours before at Maya's Taqueria...so we couldn't finish our dinners. We got to box up the left overs from dinner and keep them refrigerated in our room and enjoy the food for lunch the next day!