Pop, jazz, show tunes, the Great American Songbook: Tony Bennett, combat infantryman, onetime “crooner,” longtime pacifist and civil rights supporter has in a seventy-year career helped establish what we expect, even demand from the canon. With style and integrity, he’s engaged audiences of all ages and, lately, garnered tributes from admiring younger singers. His care with lyric and Bennett’s defining vocal dance with jazz instrumentation— from 1957’s breakthrough “The Beat of My Heart” to collaborations with Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse— make his performance (at age 91!) a survey of our rich tradition and the celebration of a lifetime.
