TONY BENNETT 1926-2023 - End of an Era

IN DOING WHAT HE LOVED, THE ESTEEMED PERFORMER MADE THE WORLD A BRIGHTER PLACE

- LOUISE A. BARILE

One year after he learned he had Alzheimer’s disease, Tony Bennet t insisted that he continue to record, perform and tour. “He tells me, ‘Hey, as long as my voice doesn’t wobble and people like me, I’m going to keep singing until I die,’” his son and manager Danny Bennett said in 2017.

Over his long life, Tony, who passed away on July 21 at age 96, never let anything keep him from the stage. “I could have retired years ago,” he said, “but I just love what I’m doing.” And it always showed.

The Grammy-winning star, born Anthony Benedetto to Italian immigrant parents in Queens, N.Y., lost his father at age 10. “My father inspired my love for music,” said Tony, who worked in a laundry, as an elevator operator and as a copy boy to help his family. At one point in his youth, he made $15 a week as a singing waiter. “It was almost Chaplinesque,” Tony recalled. “I’d get a request, and [the other waiters would] teach it to me right on the spot.”

In the early hours, he’d slip into nightclubs to watch jazz musicians jam. Occasionally, he’d even be invited to sing. Tony was just gaining traction as a performer — he called himself Joe Bari — when he was drafted to serve in the Army infantry during WWII. “A front-row seat in hell,” said Tony, who was among the troops who liberated a subcamp of the infamous Dachau concentration camp in Germany.