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 on 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 catalogue 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.
Bennett didn’t tell his own story when performing; he let the music speak instead – the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice – “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself – that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number.
“I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I think people … are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humour. … I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”
He is survived by his wife Susan, daughters Johanna and Antonia, sons Danny and Dae and nine grandchildren.
Bennett was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005 and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He also won two Emmy Awards – for Tony Bennett Live By Request: A Valentine Special (1996) and Tony Bennett: An American Classic (2007).
