The Best Is Yet to Come

The great Tony Bennett.

There are some entertainers who die far too soon - like Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain and the other famous members of the "27" Club -  and they are eternally frozen in time in our memory at that early age.  You can't imagine a 75 year old Buddy Holly or 68 year old Jim Morrison still alive and playing in Vegas.  We will always remember them at the young ages they were - still filled with possibility and promise.

Other entertainers seem to have successful careers for decades and decades, quietly under the radar.  Finally, they reach a point where they're revered and celebrated for their longevity and staying power.  We all love to see someone like Betty White - who was never a huge star - stick around for decades and decades of consistently good work.  She's a pro.  Last year she was officially crowned the Grand Dame of American comedy.

Anthony Benedetto - you probably know him as Tony Bennett - was born in 1926 and grew up in New York in the shadow of Frank Sinatra.  Ten years Sinatra's junior, Bennett was humble, quiet and smooth to Sinatra's bravado, flash and edge.  Bennett has had a successful recording and performing career for sixty years that only slowed with the advent of Rock 'n Roll in the 1960's and 1970's.

Bennett remained talented and skilled as a vocalist during that time, but was considered by the Baby Boomers as too "Vegas" and "old school."  He was someone your parents listened to, not you.

Then something happened in the 1990's.  Bennett kept quietly working and recording, continuing to hone and master his understated vocal skills.  He transitioned from "has-been" to "elder statesman."

He made a landmark TV appearance on MTV's "Unplugged" program in 1994 and suddenly Tony Bennett was cool again.  Younger musicians like Bono, Elvis Costello and k.d. lang  - appreciative of his talent, longevity and graciousness - loved him and wanted to sing with him.

I had my brush with Mr. Bennett in the early 1990's - just as he started his comeback.  Only he had never really left, we just hadn't been paying attention.

In my job as a Flight Attendant, I had many occasions to serve entertainers and famous people who were passengers on my flights, especially when I worked flights in and out of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

So it wasn't a total shock on a Saturday afternoon at LAX, as I waited to board a flight to San Francisco from the front galley of a BAE-146 (a small, British-built commuter plane that was so mechanically unreliable that crews joked that "BAE" stood for "Bring Another Engine"), that at the end of the boarding process my only passenger in First Class - sitting by himself at the window seat in the front row - was Tony Bennett himself.

I welcomed him aboard, asked him if I could hang up his coat (he declined) or get him anything to drink.  His sole request was a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon (a common drink request for a singer).

Mr. Bennett was not very tall - I would guess 5' 5" - but he was barrel-chested and solid.  He moved slowly, yet gracefully.  Many entertainers I've met have a restlessness about them - they are always moving around and fidgeting on the plane as if it's impossible for them to just be still.  Not Mr. Bennett.  He just exuded stillness and calm.  He seemed incredibly comfortable just being himself (a surprisingly rare trait for entertainers).

I asked him why he was flying up to San Francisco that day and he simply said he was performing that night.  He was polite, but not chatty.  Friendly, but formal.  He was immaculately dressed in a dark, tailored suit with a pink shirt and silk tie perfectly tied in a Windsor knot.

Central Park (1998) by Anthony Benedetto; Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Immediately after we took off, he removed a small 8" x 11" sketch pad and some drawing pencils from a small leather case he kept at his side.  He looked out the window and gazed at the passing clouds and started to draw with one of the pencils.

I knew he had some standing as an accomplished painter - at least an accomplished celebrity painter - by then.  He just sat and quietly sketched and sipped his warm lemon water for the entire 50 minute flight up to The City where he left his heart.

We landed at SFO and parked at the gate right on time.  Mr. Bennett closed up his sketch pad and placed it and his drawing pencils back in his small leather case.  He stood up, holding the case in one hand and walked towards me, his other hand outstretched to shake my hand and said, "Thank you."  Then he turned and quietly walked out the door and up the jetway, carrying only his leather drawing case.

Talk about cool!  Man, was he cool.  He looked like a zillion bucks on a Saturday afternoon in a way that said, "I love being Tony Bennett and I can roll right out of bed and look this good."

Tony Bennett has just released an album, Duets II, and at the young age of 85 years old he has his first ever #1 album on the Billboard charts.  The album features a duet with Mr. Bennett and Amy Winehouse.  It was Winehouse's last recording session.

I often tune to an artist's "channel" on Pandora while I'm writing about a musician and listen to their music.  Tony Bennett was the only living artist played on the Pandora "Tony Bennett" channel while I wrote this.  That's because Tony Bennett is the last living singer of his generation.  Like most great artists, he just makes it look so easy and effortless.  And if that were really true, there would be more like him.

I also try and look at a couple of YouTube clips before I write these posts.  Strangely, there aren't any good clips of Mr. Bennett singing his trademark song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.  Overzealous intellectual property lawyers, would be my guess.

Which is a shame because he owns that song and new generations should be encouraged to discover and enjoy it.  It's still played at the "Put your corporate telecommunications company name here" Ballpark in San Francisco after the conclusion of every Giant's game.  For me, it never gets old.

But no night in San Francisco - even when the fog rolls in - is ever as cool as Mr. Tony Bennett.

I'll leave you with Tony Bennett and Diana Krall (also a huge favorite of mine) on their duet of The Best Is Yet to Come: