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kitcat22 · 9 months

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My Genderbent Percy Jackson Names ideas!

Hold on tight cause this could get long

Percy Jackson —> Penelope Jackson

Ive seen a lot of takes where persephone is used and while i could see sally or Poseidon naming him that as a way to appease hades and try and avoid his wrath, i like Sally choosing the name of someone who got a happy ending. Penelope in greek mythology faces a lot of hardships but in the end she did get her happy ending. I also feel like Penelope being married to one of Athena’s favourite champions goes well with Penny Jackson falling for one of Athena‘s favourite sons. Also this Penelope choosing to follow her boyfriend on his perilous journey (ie. Falling into Tartartus with him) than being separated from him like the original Penelope was.

Jason Grace —> Helen Grace

Doesn’t start with the same letter but i wanted a name relating to greek mythology that i could think of reasons for. Ican see multiple ways Helen would end up with her name

1. Beryl Grace names her that out of pride. She seduces the king of gods and now she has a daughter just as beautiful as the original Helen.

2. Helen Grace does actually look a lot like Helen of Troy and was named by zeus/Jupiter for the resemblance

3. Hera, the goddess of marriage and women, maybe not being as hateful of Helen of Troy because she’s one of Zeus’ demigod daughters and not a demigod son. Also the original Helen having tumultuous marriages (depending on which version you go by) just like Hera who’s husband is about as unfaithful as you get. I could see Helen becoming one of her fave demigods and wanting to honour her by naming this new child after her. Or again Zeus naming her for that reason.

4. Helen of Troy was used in an insult against Hera so Hera being like ‘fuck you this is the new Helen, she’s gonna turn out much better than the original and she’s all mine’.

Also Helen Grace ending up in a kind of forced relationship with a son of Aphrodite.

Nico Di Angelo —> Viviana Di angelo or Mirabella Di Angelo or Rosa Di angelo

This one I’m not as decisive on, but i tried to find some italian/latin names that could be shortened to a nick name

Viviana means lively. Can be shortened to Viv. I could see this as a sort of contrast to her being the daughter of god of the dead but also Nico going through a lot of shit but surviving.

Mirabella means wonderous beauty and admiral which i think Nico is. Could be shortened to Mira or Bella.

Rosa is just a name that was popular in 1930s italy.

Also Benedetto for Bianca

Annabeth Chase —> Anthony Chase

The chase family tends to go with long posh sounding names so i thought this went well. Means praise worthy. I could also see Alexander after Alexander the Great but i don’t like giving deep meanings to every single name.

Piper McClean —> Presley McClean

Chose this because it was one of the only male P names that i liked to be honest, but Piper’s dad is famous and famous people tend to give their kids stand outish, meaningful names so maybe Presley was named after Elvis or something like that.

Frank Zhang —> Freya Zhang

Also just liked this one. Could be Francesca (no clue if i spelled that name right lol).

Leo Valdez —> Leah Valdez

Closest name to Leo i could think of.

Hazel Levesque —> Henry Levesque

Just a popular 1920s boy name starting with H.

Thalia Grace —> Hector Grace

I chose Hector because Hector of Troy was the greatest warrior for Troy and i think Zeus would want his son named after a great warrior. Before you say ‘but Hector was defeated by Achilles so shouldn’t he be named after Achilles’ I think even Zeus might think twice about naming the possible child of the prophecy after someone that had to be shot down because he was getting out of control. I don’t know if it rolls of the tongue as easily as Thalia Grace but i also thought it went nicely with Helen.

#percy jackson #pjo #percy jackson genderbend #percy jackson and the heroes of olympus #the seven #annabeth chase #jason grace #thalia grace #leo valdez #hazel levesque #nico di angelo #frank zhang #heroes of olympus

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warningsine · 1 year

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Tony Bennett, the American pop and jazz singer who became the torchbearer for the Great American Songbook during a seven decade career, has died aged 96, his publicist said on Friday.

Bennett was perhaps best known for his 1962 signature song I Left My Heart in San Francisco as well as for staging an astonishing career comeback during the 80s and 90s that delivered him sustained popularity into old age. He won 18 Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 2001, and has sold more than 50m records worldwide.

In 2020, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016. He wrote on Twitter: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.” It was revealed that while his cognitive function was impaired, he was still able to sing a whole range of his repertoire.

Bennett’s ability to perform across the genres of pop, big band and jazz won him plaudits and a conveyor belt of willing collaborators. He proved his relevance in 2014 by collaborating with Lady Gaga on the album Cheek to Cheek, which saw the pair tackle a series of jazz standards. It was a No 1 record in the US and made Bennett the oldest living act to reach the top spot, a record he already held thanks to his 2011 album Duets II.

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 to Italian immigrants, Bennett had an impoverished upbringing in Queens, New York. His father died when he was 10 years old, although he was already singing professionally by that point. As a teenager he became a singing waiter, earning money for the family before enrolling to study music and painting at New York’s School of Industrial Art.

Bennett was drafted into the US army in 1944 to fight in France and Germany during the final year of the second world war. It was an experience that scarred him. “It’s legalised murder,” he said during a 2013 Guardian interview.

But he continued to sing while in Germany as part of the occupying force, and in 1949, after returning home, his singing career could begin properly, first under the name Joe Bari and then as Tony Bennett.

His breakthrough came in 1951 with his first No 1, Because of You. The hits continued throughout the decade with songs such as Blue Velvet, Rags to Riches and material that looked towards the swinging sound of his childhood hero Frank Sinatra. Bennett became a teen idol, and when he married his first wife, Patricia Beech, in 1952, 2,000 female fans dressed in black to “mourn” the event outside the New York ceremony.

In 1962 he reached superstar status thanks to his version of the 1953 song I Left My Heart in San Francisco. The song won Bennett two Grammy awards and became a 20th-century pop standard.

Bennett’s style, however, was already looking outdated as the British invasion swept the US charts, and he struggled for relevance during the 1960s. The following decade saw him face a number of personal problems, including the end of his second marriage and serious drug addiction. Yet two albums recorded with pianist Bill Evans would be key to his later re-emergence as a central figure in US music.

The turning point in his life came when Bennett hired his son Danny to be his manager. Ditching the Las Vegas circuit for New York and reuniting with his early 60s pianist and musical director Ralph Sharon proved to be masterstrokes. His 1986 comeback album, The Art of Excellence, was a hit from which he never looked back. Perfectly Frank (1992) – a tribute to his idol Sinatra – topped the US Billboard’s jazz charts, while 1994’s MTV Unplugged saw Bennett win a Grammy for album of the year. Bennett became a fixture on the late-night TV circuit and collaborated with a host of artists such as kd lang, Amy Winehouse, Queen Latifah and Diana Krall, which helped maintain his relevance with younger artists. His 2006 album, Duets: An American Classic, featured appearances from Paul McCartney, Elton John and George Michael.

In 1962 he reached superstar status thanks to his version of the 1953 song I Left My Heart in San Francisco. The song won Bennett two Grammy awards and became a 20th-century pop standard.

Singing was not Bennett’s only artistic pursuit. His paintings, produced under his birth name, are on display at the Smithsonian Institution and the Butler Institute of American Art. In 2001, he founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, New York which offers qualifications in fine art, dance, vocal and instrumental music, drama and film.

A lifelong Democrat, Bennett was also a supporter of the civil rights movement who participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches and refused to perform in apartheid-era South Africa.

Bennett remained determined to perform into his later life. Shortly after his 90th birthday he told the New York Times: “I could have retired 16 years ago, but I just love what I’m doing.”

#tony bennett

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odk-2 · 1 year

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Tony Bennett, 1926 - 2023

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023

Tony Bennett, Champion of the Great American Songbook, Is Dead at 96 - NYT From his initial success as a jazzy crooner through his generation-spanning duets, his career was remarkable for both its longevity and its consistency.

Tony Bennett, Beloved Standards Crooner Who Bridged Generations, Dead at 96 - RollingStone One of music's last standards-bearer found a new generation of fans later in his career

Tony Bennett, Master Pop Vocalist, Dies at 96 - Variety

Tony Bennett - Wikipedia

#Obituary #Tony Bennett #Obit #Music History

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girlactionfigure · 1 year

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He was the proud son of Italian immigrants, and he was born on August 3, 1926 in Astoria, Queens, New York. His mother was a seamstress and his father was a grocer. His father died when he was 10.

He grew up during the Great Depression and quickly learned what life was about. With no father, the family lived in poverty, and by the age of 16, the young boy had dropped out of school to support his family.

In November 1944, during the final stages of World War II, he was drafted into the United States Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After seeing the horrors of war firsthand, fighting Nazis, and liberating a concentration camp, he said, "My experience in the Army turned me into a lifelong pacifist and it’s my hope that all wars and violence will become a thing of the past."

He added, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one."

While in the army, he also saw what racism was about firsthand. He got demoted for dining with a black friend, at a time when the Army was still racially segregated.

“An Army officer blasted the two soldiers — one Black and the other White — with a hate-filled rant for being together in public,” according to The Washington Post. “In the segregated military of the day, the two men were not allowed to socialize. Back then, the punishment for Black and White soldiers associating with one another was more severe than if they fraternized with civilians in occupied Germany.”

“This officer took out a razor blade and cut my corporal stripes off my uniform right then and there,” he wrote. “He spit on them and threw them on the floor, and said, ‘Get your ass out of here!’”

~~~~~

He had been interested in singing since he was a child, and after his discharge from the Army and with the help of the GI Bill, he started studying at the American Theatre Wing. He continued performing whenever he could, even while waiting on tables.

One day, singer Pearl Bailey recognized his singing talents and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. There he met entertainer Bob Hope who was also impressed with him, and suggested he change his name.

He would eventually cut a demo, remembering his difficult time, growing up, singing the words, "I left my... soul behind me" in the song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

By this time, he had taken Bob Hope's advice and had simplified his name, from Anthony Dominick Benedetto to . . . Tony Bennett.

“Tony Bennett, a singer whose melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-embracing persona and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards helped spread the American songbook around the world and won him generations of fans, died on Friday at his home of many decades in Manhattan. He was 96,” according to the New York Times.

“Mr. Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, his wife, Susan Benedetto, told AARP The Magazine in February 2021. But he continued to perform and record despite his illness; his last public performance was in August 2021, when he appeared with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in a show titled ‘One Last Time.’

“Mr. Bennett’s career of more than 70 years was remarkable not only for its longevity, but also for its consistency. In hundreds of concerts and club dates and more than 150 recordings, he devoted himself to preserving the classic American popular song, as written by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others.”

The Peace Page last shared a story on Tony Bennett in 2019. This is an updated story, remembering Mr. Bennett’s life.

The Peace Page focuses on past and present stories—some seldom told, others simply forgotten, still others intentionally ignored. The stories and chapters are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding—to bring people together. We thank you for taking the time to be here and helping us share awareness.

~~~~~

In July 1961, Mr. Bennett was performing in Hot Springs, Ark., and about to head to the West Coast, according to the New York Times.

Bennett's accompanist and arranger for more than 50 years, Ralph Sharon, found sheet music to a song, stashed in a drawer, along with some shirts, according to NPR. “He packed it before hitting the road.”

"I always remember," recounts Sharon. I took this out of my bag, and looked at it, and called Tony. And I said, 'You know something, we're going to San Francisco next.' And I said, 'This is a song here that might be interesting.' "

“Mr. Sharon and Mr. Bennett decided that [the song written by George Cory and Douglass Cross] would be perfect for their next date, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, and it was.”

“They recorded the song — of course it was “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” — six months later, in January 1962. It won Mr. Bennett his first two Grammys, for best male solo performance and record of the year, and worldwide fame.”

Tony Bennett would go on to become one of the most beloved singers in history, winning 20 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Emmy Awards. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide.

But, he never forgot his past, and he never forgot the promise of America, saying, "we’re the greatest country," but adding the reason is "because we’re all different nationalities and all different religions."

He remembered when his good friend Harry Belafonte, who he had known since the 40s when they were both just starting out, gave him a call and "told me what was going on in the South and asked me to join Dr. King on his march to Selma.”

Bennett recalled on CNN in 2013, “I didn't want to do it, but then he told me what went down — how some Blacks were burned. Had gasoline thrown on them and they were burned. When I heard that, I said, 'I'll go with you.'"

“I knew it was important to be there and support. I remember it was decided that we wanted to set up a performance for the marchers one night, but we were in an open field. One of the organizers had a friend who owned a funeral home and they brought in 18 wooden coffins and we used that as the foundation for a stage that night."

“I kept flashing back to a time twenty years ago when my buddies and I fought our way into Germany,” he wrote in his autobiography. “It felt the same way down in Selma: the white state troopers were really hostile, and they were not shy about showing it.”

At the march, Bennett also met Detroit civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, who had driven Bennett to the airport, according to the Detroit Free Press. The next day, Liuzzo was shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan .

~~~~~

Bennett continued speaking out for civil rights and would also speak out against apartheid in South Africa.

He would also say his war experience gave him "a social conscience," saying he believes "every gun in the world should melt somehow and as soon as possible," and comparing America’s gun culture and the political tolerance of it to Hitler’s Germany.

He said, "I consider myself a humanist."

When he received the Jazz Foundation of America Lifetime Achievement Award, presenter Ben Stiller mentioned his admiration for the singer in taking on social justice issues long before it was fashionable, from marching in Selma to refusing to play in South Africa during Apartheid, according to Billboard.

~~~~~

“There is one other very important thing about Bennett to note and to admire,” according to the The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune. “He continued to perform despite the onset of dementia.

“For anyone who watched his late-in-life work with Lady Gaga, here was a remarkable example of someone who showed the world one of the oft-forgotten truths about a condition that afflicts so many Americans: People with advanced levels of dementia still can contribute a great deal, especially if it is something they have done for years.

“Bennett struggled to remember names and faces, but when he started to sing, he went on a kind of autopilot, the familiar smile returning to his face and the notes and even the lyrics flowing like good wine. This was familiar to many people who knew dementia well: a reminder that the original person always is in there, communicating and loving just as at the times when it was far more obvious to those on the outside. In his courage, Bennett offered a great deal of comfort to those who best knew what he was facing.

“Fortunately, Bennett managed to surround himself with kind family members and fellow artists who protected his reputation as they did his spirit.”

~~~~~

The Hollywood Bowl said, "Throughout his life, Tony Bennett has been a dedicated pacifist and proactive humanitarian selflessly supporting many causes whose goals benefit the lives of millions. His love for his country has earned him the distinction of national treasure and the United Nations has named him a Citizen of the World as one of their foremost ambassadors."

Bennett remembered in the army when he couldn’t dine with his Black friend.

“I couldn’t get over the fact that they condemned us for just being friends, and especially while we served our country in wartime,” Bennett wrote in his 1998 autobiography, “The Good Life.” “There we were, just two kids happy to see each other, trying to forget for the moment the horror of the war, but for the brass it just boiled down to the color of our skin.”

Bennett remembered being “terrified by the violence,” but it only confirmed his belief that no one “should suffer simply because of the color of his skin.” He continued to speak out against bigotry and hatred throughout his career, often performing with African American entertainers at a time when it wasn’t socially acceptable, according to The Washington Post.

According to an interview with Susan C. Ingram in October 2018, Bennett recalls what his former neighbor Ella Fitzgerald told him - “Tony, we are all here.” "And Ella was right, we share this planet together and we have more in common than we have differences since we are all human."

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

#Tony Bennett

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amagi2000 · 1 year

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Tony Bennett

Anthony Dominick Benedetto, United States Army

63rd Infantry Division

August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023

Tony Bennett was an American singer. Bennett amassed many accolades throughout his career, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree, and was the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. Bennett sold more than 50 million records worldwide.

Tony Bennett had come a long way since growing up poor in Queens, New York, during the Great Depression. Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 to Italian immigrants, Bennett's father was a grocer who died when Tony was 10 years old. It wasn't long before he started helping out the family by singing while waiting tables.

Like many people and many families, the Benedettos' lives were forever changed by World War II.

Bennett turned 18 in 1944 and was drafted into the U.S. Army.

By March 1945, the young soldier was deploying to Europe with the 63rd Infantry Division, replacing casualties lost in the Battle of the Bulge. In his 1998 autobiography "The Good Life," he called the war a "front row seat in hell."

As the German Army was pushed back, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them.

At the end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers; during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River, and by the end of the month rea ched the Danube.

During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times. The experience made him a pacifist he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one,"and later say, "It was a nightmare that's permanent. I just said, 'This is not life. This is not life.'"

At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of the Kaufering concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau, near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held. He later wrote in his autobiography that "I saw things no human being should ever have to see."

Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces. His dining with a black friend from high school—at a time when the Army was still racially segregated—led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties.

Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari (a name he had started using before the war, chosen after the city and province in Italy and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria). He played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables. Based upon a suggestion from a teacher at American Theatre Wing, he developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as he sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians—such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano—helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song.He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.

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justinsentertainmentcorner · 1 year

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Charles J. Gans at AP News:

NEW YORK (AP) — Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” graced a decadeslong career that brought him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died Friday. He was 96, just two weeks short of his birthday. Publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett’s death to The Associated Press, saying he died in his hometown of New York. There was no specific cause, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalog rather than hit records.” He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys — all but two after he reached his 60s — and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists. [...]

He not only survived the rise of rock music but endured so long and so well that he gained new fans and collaborators, some young enough to be his grandchildren. In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Amy,” which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance of “Body and Soul.” His final album, the 2021 release “Love for Sale,” featured duets with Lady Gaga on the title track, “Night and Day” and other Porter songs. For Bennett, one of the few performers to move easily between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences to what he called the Great American Songbook. [...]

By his early 40s, he was seemingly out of fashion. But after turning 60, an age when even the most popular artists often settle for just pleasing their older fans, Bennett and his son and manager, Danny, found creative ways to market the singer to the MTV Generation. He made guest appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman” and became a celebrity guest artist on “The Simpsons.” He wore a black T-shirt and sunglasses as a presenter with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, and his own video of “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from his Grammy-winning Fred Astaire tribute album ended up on MTV’s hip “Buzz Bin.” That led to an offer in 1994 to do an episode of “MTV Unplugged” with special guests Elvis Costello and k.d. lang. The evening’s performance resulted in the album, “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged,” which won two Grammys, including album of the year.

[...] Long associated with San Francisco, Bennett would note that his true home was Astoria, the working-class community in the New York City borough of Queens, where he grew up during the Great Depression. The singer chose his old neighborhood as the site for the “Fame”-style public high school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, that he and his third wife, Susan Crow Benedetto, a former teacher, helped found in 2001. The school is not far from the birthplace of the man who was once Anthony Dominick Benedetto. His father was an Italian immigrant who inspired his love of singing, but he died when Anthony was 10. Bennett credited his mother, Anna, with teaching him a valuable lesson as he watched her working at home, supporting her three children as a seamstress doing piecework after his father died.

Musician Tony Bennett died at 96. Bennett collaborated with Lady Gaga very late in his career to make him relevant to younger audiences. #RIPTonyBennett

#Tony Bennett #Obituaries #Celebrities #Lady Gaga #Music

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lucienballard · 1 year

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RIP Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett, who has died aged 96, made a high art out of being the very best kind of saloon-bar singer – not only in the good-humoured optimism of his big, expansive sound, or his passionate gratitude for life’s lucky breaks and glimpsed beauties, but also in an unquenchable appetite for sharing good songs, whether with 10 people or 10,000.

Frank Sinatra used to call Bennett “the best singer in the business”, an accolade that would frequently turn up in the younger man’s publicity, though a more forthright tribute from the same source (“that kid’s got four sets of balls”) generally did not. Bennett’s artistry and power to stir the heart were qualities a world away from the cliched perception of the Vegas crooner in a tuxedo. During the rock-dominated 1960s and 70s, Bennett was easy to caricature. You only had to pretend to loosen a tie, casually throw an imaginary microphone from hand to hand, and exhale “the loveliness of Paris” in tones somewhere between Sinatra’s and the club style of Vic Reeves.

Closer listening to Bennett’s smoky baritone revealed a different story. His performances often sounded like thanksgivings – for the breaks he’d had, and for his conviction that the good in the world outstripped the bad. This curiously worldly innocence was at the core of his enduring appeal. Bennett’s records (including Because of You and a version of the country singer Hank Williams’s Cold, Cold Heart) topped the charts in 1951 before the arrival of rock’n’roll. His most celebrated later hits included his signature song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, The Good Life (both 1962) and Who Can I Turn To? (1964). Bennett won 19 Grammy awards and was estimated to have sold more than 50m records worldwide.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hT5VOnaGRSU?start=2&wmode=opaque&feature=oembed&start=2Tony Bennett performing I Left My Heart in San Francisco on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. YouTube

He was also an accomplished painter and produced a book of his visual art, What My Heart Has Seen (1996). His autobiography, published in 1998, was entitled The Good Life – Bennett knew only too well how ambiguous a notion that could be, having narrowly survived a cocaine overdose and fought off bankruptcy during his troubled middle years. He raised millions of dollars for charities and publicly associated himself with liberal causes. In an interview with the singer in 2002, Simon Hattenstone wrote in the Guardian that Bennett had “done all the classic showbiz stuff, snorted coke with the best of ’em, made out with the younger women, broken bread with the mafia – and somehow come out with his innocence, his idealism, intact”.

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in the Astoria district of Queens, New York, he was the son of John, a grocer from southern Italy, and Anna (nee Suraci), a seamstress. His father died when Bennett was 10 and Anna worked all hours to support her three children. Watching her struggle, Bennett made up his mind to be successful enough for his mother’s trials to end. His Uncle Dick, a tap dancer, provided an early glimpse of showbusiness, and Bennett was passionate about both singing and painting by the time he attended the School of Industrial Art (now the High School of Art and Design) in Manhattan.

After demobilisation, Bennett took vocal classes in the bel canto style at the American Theatre Wing school (a teacher there suggested he try imitating the phrasing of jazz instrumentalists) and he began singing in nightclubs from 1946 under the stage name of Joe Bari. The comedian Bob Hope hired him in 1949, but, disliking the stage name, told him: “We’ll call you Tony Bennett.”

Bennett worked in New York at the Paramount theatre in Hope’s popular show, which soon needed police barricades to hold back the singer’s teenage fans. When he married Patricia Beech in 1952, crowds of young women showed up outside the ceremony, dressed as if in mourning.

Bennett became one of the biggest vocal draws in the US, with three No 1 hits – Because of You, Cold, Cold Heart (both 1951) and Rags to Riches (1953). His single Stranger in Paradise, from the Broadway musical Kismet, brought him a No 1 in the UK in 1955 but the arrival of rock’n’roll made it Bennett’s first and last Top 10 single in the UK, and he had only one more in the US, when In the Middle of an Island reached No 9 in 1957.

Bennett needed to adapt. Unlike Sinatra or Bing Crosby, he had not worked with the swing big-bands, a learning curve alongside expert instrumentalists that could sharpen technique and fill a singer with fresh ideas. But in 1957 he began a long working relationship with the London-born jazz pianist and arranger Ralph Sharon, who edged him toward a jazzier repertoire. Bennett’s 1957 album The Beat of My Heart was made with help from the jazz musicians Herbie Mann, Art Blakey and Jo Jones among others; it was followed by Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (1958) and In Person! (1959) with Count Basie’s big band.

Along with many other singers of his kind, Bennett found that his sales went into steady decline. He tried an unsuccessful detour into acting before, in 1969, the Columbia Records boss Clive Davis persuaded him to make an album of 60s pop hits including the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. The cover art portrayed him in flares and a psychedelic tie, and Bennett was so intimidated by his unsuitability for material he was not yet ready to appreciate that he threw up during the recordings. He later said it reminded him of his mother being forced to make cheap dresses for money.

Bennett left Columbia and worked for smaller jazz labels during the next decade. He performed with the big bands of Woody Herman, Buddy Rich and Duke Ellington, and in 1975 made a duo album for the Fantasy label with one of modern jazz’s most lyrical pianists, Bill Evans. What might have seemed like an unlikely partnership between the cerebral Evans and the heart-on-sleeve popular performer worked remarkably well, with Bennett’s account of Evans’ famous Waltz for Debby revealing an inspired grasp of the art of jazz-inflected vocal interpretation and interplay. Two years later, the pair reconvened for Together Again on Bennett’s own shortlived Improv label.

In the 90s he paid tributes to Sinatra and Fred Astaire, on the albums Perfectly Frank and Steppin’ Out, respectively, and also recorded homages to Billie Holiday (Tony Bennett on Holiday) and Duke Ellington (Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot and Cool). Through his work with kd lang and Elvis Costello on MTV, he reconnected with a young audience. He even played at Glastonbury in 1998, with the organisers laying out a path of hay bales so he wouldn’t get his silk suit muddy on the way to the stage.

On Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues (2001), he recorded a memorable series of duets with lang, Ray Charles, Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, Diana Krall, BB King, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder.

For his 80th birthday in 2006, Bennett released Duets: An American Classic, featuring performances with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and Bono, and five years later came Duets II, with another glitzy cast including Aretha Franklin, Lady Gaga – and Amy Winehouse, with whom he shared a memorable Body and Soul in March 2011.

In 2012, his book of philosophical musings, Life Is a Gift, was published. The 2014 album Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek was another Billboard chart-topper, and the following year he won a Grammy for a tribute album to Jerome Kern.

The Empire State Building was specially illuminated for Bennett’s 90th birthday in 2016 – and that year Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga and more performed on an NBC primetime special, Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet to Come. The Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio (where Bennett’s Homage to Hockney is part of a permanent collection) presented its Two Painters exhibition, showing Bennett’s Tuscan landscapes, still lifes and portraits alongside watercolourist Charles Reid’s work. In November 2017, the Library of Congress made him the first non-composer to win the Gershwin prize.

Bennett worked into his later years – because a new audience was there for him, and because the money funded his charitable work, including the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, which he had founded in 2001. He painted every day for as long as he was able. “You paint with nature out in the field and you realise how magnificent being alive is,” Bennett enthused to Hattenstone in 2002. “Most people just walk past it. I used to walk past it. Each day now, because of my age, I just look at it and cherish it. If people could only grasp how wonderful it is to be part of this.” A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2016 did not dim this view, with Bennett stating on Twitter: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.”

His final live performances were with Lady Gaga in 2021, at Radio City Music Hall, New York.

Bennett’s first two marriages ended in divorce. In 2007 he married Susan Crow, who survives him, as do his sons, and two daughters, Joanna and Antonia, from his second marriage.

Tony Bennett (Anthony Dominick Benedetto), singer, born 3 August 1926; died 21 July 2023

#tony bennett

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bonerdonorxxx44 · 1 year

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R.I.P. Tony Bennett

Anthony Dominick Benedetto

Born: August 3, 1926 - Died: July 21, 2023

#tony bennett #music

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nardogranata · 7 months

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Quarta sconfitta consecutiva. Il Nardò esce di scena.

MATERA - NARDO' 2-1

Goal: 15' Russo F., 48' Infantino, 70' Gennari

MATERA: Tartaro; Agnello, Sirimarco, Ferrara (74' Prado), Maltese (92' Di Palma) Russo F. (80' Tumminelli), Porro, Sepe. Infantino (78' Delvino) Cipolletta, Gningue.

Panchina: Paparella, Parisi, Lucas, Cirio, Mac Anthony.

Trainer: Luigi Panarelli

NARDO': (3-4-1-2) Viola; Russo J. (77' Ciracì) Urquiza, Gennari; Ceccarini, (77' Borgo), Guadalupi, Addae, Di Benedetto; Gentile (55' Ferreira), Dambros (65' Dammacco), D'Anna.

Panchina: Della Pina, De Giorgi, Latagliata, Cellamare, Mariani.

Trainer: Massimo Costantino

Arbitro: Silvio Torregiani di Civitavecchia

Assistenti: Gregorio Galieni di Ascoli e Roberto Maroni di Fermo.

Ammoniti: Russo J., Urquiza (N) Sepe (M)

Quarta sconfitta consecutiva per il Nardò e addio definitivo ai sogni di primato. Il cambio di allenatore si rivela un flop e ora si rimette in gioco anche la qualificazione ai play off.

Il match col Matera ha evidenziato ancora una volta i problemi dei granata con una difesa fragile sui palloni alti e un attacco sterile con punte incapaci di concretizzare occasioni favorevoli.

Di tutto ciò ne ha approfittato il Matera che ha risolto la crisi di gioco e risultati grazie a due goal di testa segnati in apertura dei due tempi.

Anche oggi Costantino ha proposto delle novità nel modulo di partenza schierando un inedito 3-4-1-2 poi convertito in 3-4-3 senza cambiare la sostanza del gioco e soprattutto dei risultati.

La cronaca:

Buona partenza del Nardò subito al tiro con Dambros. Para a terra Tartaro. Al 6' verticale di Guadalupi per D'Anna. Esce in anticipo Tartaro e para, ma al primo affondo segna il Matera. Fallo laterale con pallone lanciato in area, Cipolletta fa da torre, Francesco Russo insacca di testa. 1-0 Matera.

Il Nardò ferito reagisce. Al 18' Ceccarini raccoglie un cross di D'Anna e colpisce al volo. Cipolletta salva sulla linea.

Le squadre si allungano. Al 28' tiro di Maltese deviato in corner. Segue mischia con contropiede di Gentile e tiro fiacco di D'Anna.

Al 30' Dambros non approfitta di un regalo di Cipolletta e si fa ribattere il tiro.

Ancora Nardò al 32'. Tiro teso di D'Anna in diagonale. Respinge Tartaro. Quattro minuti dopo, assist di Guadalupi per Ceccarini che da posizione invitante calcia a rete. Tartaro si salva coi piedi.

Dambros si scontra in area fortuitamente. Capannello di spintoni e nervosismo. L'arbitro fischia la fine del primo tempo.

Secondo tempo.

Dopo due tentativi di D'Anna dalla distanza arriva il raddoppio del Matera. Solito copione. Punizione-cross di Agnello e Infantino incorna in rete con difesa e portiere neretino ancora battuti.

Al 55' entra Ferreira per Gentile e pochi minuti dopo la punta brasiliana ha l'occasione per accorciare le distanze. D'Anna lo libera al tiro ma Ferreira cicca tirando addosso al portiere.

Il Nardò aumenta i giri e trova il goal dopo oltre 300 minuti di digiuno.

Al 70' punizione-cross di Guadalupi e Gennari colpisce di testa in mischia. Segna un difensore per compensare l'incapacità realizzativa degli attaccanti. Ma non basta.

All' 83 colpo di testa di Addae, respinge Cipolletta poi mischia risolta da Tartaro. Il portiere materano interviene con tempismo su un tiro a giro di D'Anna, piuttosto centrale, ma si supera su un velenoso tiro al volo di Borgo dal limite deviando in corner.

Dopo un ultimo tentativo di D'Anna con pallone ampiamente al lato e le solite schermaglie di fine partita, l'arbitro manda tutti negli spogliatoi sancendo una sconfitta che mette fine ai sogni di gloria neretini.

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