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 in New York City.
His publicist, Sylvia Weiner, announced his death.
In February 2021, his wife, Susan Bennett, told AARP The Magazine that Mr. Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
He continued to perform and record despite his illness; his last public performance was in August of that year, 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.
Persons:
Tony Bennett, Sylvia Weiner, Susan Bennett, Bennett, Lady Gaga, Mr, Bennett’s, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Gaga, —
Organizations:
Radio City Music, Paramount, Times
Locations:
New York City, American