i remember a grammies show a number of years back. i'm not sure why i was watching it but i remember harry connick jr doing an anemic version of some jazz standard. i don't have anything against connick but i'd have preferred that his great teacher(james booker)had lived & dazzled folks on the grammies show that night instead of what i saw. anyway, i found out that there really is a jazz god, at least one the rights wrongs. somehow, through what must have been an amazing scheduling fuck-up, the next performer was tony bennett. i can only imagine the hissy fit that conick must have thrown backstage. bennett came out & made connick look like the little boy he was & still is. from his swing to his phrasing to his range, bennett put on a little clinic. we were all schooled.
("I love that park. I always dreamed of having a place that would catch the afternoon light, so I could paint that park over and over." (The artist, quoted in Sullivan, Tony Bennett in the Studio: A life of Art & Music, 2007, excerpted in "Tony Bennett: The Musician and the Artist," msnbc.com, September 24, 2007))
unlike sinatra, bennett pretty much has his chops this late in the game. furthermore, as opposed to the pig sinatra was as a man, bennett oozes class & intelligence. he's 83yo today & still performing(he was on elvis costello's show last year). let's hope he continues w/many more b'days & performances.
sorry about the before & after imus but bennett swings this song & negotiates all the chordal modulations w/ease.
enjoy.
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