Tony Bennett | Champion of the Great American Songbook | Is Dead at the age of 96

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Tony Bennett’s career was notable for its durability and consistency, from his early popularity as a jazzy crooner to his duets that cut across generations.

The finest American pop singers of the 20th century left a musical legacy that Tony Bennett continued into the 21st century.Credit…c. Higgins, Jr.

Tony Bennett, a singer who helped popularise American songwriting around the world and won him countless fans, passed away on Friday at his longtime Manhattan residence. He was known for his melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-friendly demeanour, and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards. He was 96.

His death was reported by Sylvia Weiner, his publicist.

In February 2021, Mr. Bennett’s wife, Susan Benedetto, informed AARP The Magazine that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. In spite of his sickness, he continued to perform and record; his final public appearance was in August 2021 when he shared a stage with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall for a performance dubbed “One Last Time.”

The more than 70-year career of Mr. Bennett was notable for both its longevity and consistency. He committed himself to preserving the traditional American popular song, as written by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and others, through hundreds of performances and club dates and more than 150 recordings.

From his early success as a jazzy crooner who mesmerised audiences at the Paramount in Times Square in the early 1950s to his later duets with singers culled from a variety of genres and generations — most notably Lady Gaga, with whom he recorded albums in 2014 and 2021 and toured in 2015 — he was an active promoter of both songwriting and entertaining as timeless, noble pursuits.

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