My oldest daughter, knowing that I wanted to hear and see Tony Bennett perform live, gave me a combination Christmas, Birthday and Father's Day present and took me to see him in concert at Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA the other day.  The concert is part of his "The Best Is Yet To Come" tour sponsored in part by the AARP.  
 
One of the many advantages of living in the South Jersey / Delaware Valley area is the ability to attend events and visit sights in the Washington - Baltimore - Philadelphia - New York metropolitan region, that can easily be done in a day or evening trip.  In our situation, we had never been to Wolf Trap (in Vienna, VA just outside Washington, D.C.) as that was the closest Bennett  would be on dates that I could attend, so we scheduled it as a time to be together and experience Tony Bennett at Wolf Trap.
 
On the day of the concert we left home mid-afternoon for our destination, arriving in time to park, grab something quick to eat, and settle in for the concert starting at 8 p.m.
 
If you've never been to Wolf Trap, I can now vouch that it is a great venue on a nice warm summer evening, which is how we experienced it. You have the choice of sitting under cover or outside on the lawn. While the stage looks small from the lawn, the sound is excellent.  People come and eat at the open air restaurant on the grounds, order a box lunch or bring their own dinners and drinks and eat on the park picnic tables or right on the lawn where they will watch the show.   
 
We sat about halfway back, under cover, in regular seats so we did not have to worry about weather, since we had to order tickets well in advance.  From where we sat, it appeared that we had close to a capacity audience both under cover and out on the lawn.
 
The concert started with the musicians taking their positions, an announcer quickly introducing Tony Bennett, then Tony entering the stage in a sharp-looking pale yellow sport jacket and blue tie to a standing ovation which he graciously acknowledged.  Then were we off and running for a non-stop 90 minutes of great music, with minimal patter, from the "American Song Book" and great musicianship, including in the starting set the song, "The Best Is Yet To Come", the theme for Tony's concert tour.  
 
Because of the traffic conditions in the Washington Area, there were still people become coming in and taking their seats after Tony started to sing.  At one point, when a group of latecomers were taking their seats in the very front rows, Tony Bennett joked, "You don't know what you missed!"  And the rest of us in the audience laughingly agreed and applauded.
 
Tony Bennett performs with a quartet of excellent jazz musicians: Bruce Barth on piano, bassist Paul Langosch, Gray Sargent on guitar and Harold Jones on drums, about whom Tony shares that Count Basie said he was the best drummer he ever knew.  They are all some of the best in the business and he provides them with many opportunities during the concert to prove themselves, and they deliver.
 
For a man over 80 years old, Tony Bennett still has the chops of many singers 20 or 30 years younger.  While he doesn't have the endurance he used to have -- he takes frequent breaks while letting the musicians take solos and his voice has some raspy-ness that's more apparent during the quieter/softer moments of a song -- he was still hitting high (and low) notes with force. A couple of times he moved the mike away for a few bars and you could amazingly hear him just as loud without it as you could with it! (In the past, I have heard that he has sung Fly Me To The Moon a capella to demonstrate this ability, but did not do so this evening.) Apparently, he is skilled at projecting he voice and blessed with pipes and good training (bel canto)  that keeps him from damaging his voice.  While he certainly gives you your money's worth for the concert, and though he had a standing ovation with several curtain calls, he did not do any encores. I'm sure that's to protect his voice.
 
His American songs list included slow, moving ballads and exciting swing numbers such as "Steppin Out" during which he even did a little choreography or a little samba-like action with "The Shadow of Your Smile". During one of the songs he broke out into scat singing.  He introduced, "If I Ruled The World," as his political song.  He of course does several of his hits, including "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", but the version he did in concert is softer, warmer and more intimate than the standard recorded version everyone knows.  He does end it strongly as in the original.  He sang most of the songs with his phenomenal quartet.  However, on several he was accompanied just by the guitarist, creating an even more intimate, mood with beautiful cord progressions that complemented Bennett's rendering of a song.. 
 
Other songs he sang included, "Once Upon a Time", "All the Things You Are", "I Got Rhythm", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Its a Sin to Tell a Lie" and "I Wanna Be Around".   He shared briefly, before singing "For Once In My Life", that it was presented to him by it's author, Ron Miller, when he was performing in Detroit and he immediately recognized it as a great song and recorded it.  It was later offered to a then 15-year old Stevie Wonder who had a big hit with it  (#2 in 1968). Later he and Stevie recorded a duet of the song which recently won a Grammy.  Toward the end of the concert Tony did a great swinging tribute to Duke Ellington.
 
Tony's appeal is not just his ability to sing notes well at 80.  He is a master at phrasing, bringing out the story in the lyrics, and in creating emotional dynamics that impact the listener.  While every song he sang was exceptional, they are songs that most have heard many times before by other singers. When he was singing the songs live on stage, you heard every word as if it was an emotional conversation between you and him and he held your attention. And it was if I was hearing many of them for the first time -- which in a sense I was.  I thoroughly enjoyed ever moment of that experience.
 
Tony shared during the concert that at 80 years of age, he was celebrating over 50 years in show business, then in mock surprise raising his hand to his head, he exclaims that he just realized that it's actually been over 60 years, to the laugh and applause of the audience.
 
While I wish him another 60 years of singing excellence, I encourage you to hear him now while you have the chance and he is still in top condition for his age. 
 
Tony covered a lot of music in 90 minutes, but it eventually came to an end. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the concert on many levels, the best aspect of the evening was being able to share the time and experience with my daughter, who also enjoyed the concert.
 
If you live in Southern New Jersey or the Delaware Valley Area, or plan on vacationing at on Jersey Shore, you can hear Tony Bennett live, in concert, when his tour stops over in Atlantic City for two shows on August 24th and 25th. 

  
Additional Online References:
NPR Jazz Profiles: Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett -- Official Site
Tony Bennett's Art website (Anthony Benedetto) [Art Biography]
IcebergRadio: Tony Bennett Interview (including Audio and Video)
Tony Bennett: Impeccable Standards (On Stage 2002 Interview -- interesting information about his training, practice, methods, etc. He also talks about Ralph Sharon, then his piano player, who later retired from touring.)
AARP: Interview with Tony Bennett about his daughter Antonia Bennett (2003)
PBS: Great American Songbook
American Songbook Preservation Society
Modern Drummer: Harold Jones
DrummerWorld: Harold Jones
BassTalk: Tony's Bassist - Paul Langosch
BruceBarth.com
Jazz Review: Bruce Barth - Going Where The Music Takes Him
Yamaha Press Release: Gary Sargent (2001)
Interview: Gary Sargent
NPR - Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz: Lee Musiker (not in concert, worked with him on records)
Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
 
 
 
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