190-554: Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett , was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards , a Lifetime Achievement Award , and two Primetime Emmy Awards . Bennett was named a National Endowments for the Arts Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree . He founded the Frank Sinatra School of
380-402: A Newsweek interview. "I remember 'The Jazz Singer,' when Al Jolson just burst into song, and there was a little bit of dialogue. And when he came out with 'Mammy,' and went down on his knees to his Mammy, it was just dynamite." This opinion is shared by Mast and Kawin: this moment of informal patter at the piano is the most exciting and vital part of the entire movie ... when Jolson acquires
570-460: A "Vegas" image. After some effort, a successful plan to pay back the IRS debt was put into place. The singer had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director (and would remain with him until Sharon's retirement in 2002). By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence . This became his first album to reach
760-626: A "special relationship to time defined as 'swing ' ". Jazz involves "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role" and contains a "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician". A broader definition that encompasses different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: "it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities". Krin Gibbard argued that "jazz
950-597: A 1942 interview in The New York Times : "When the war started ... [I] felt that it was up to me to do something, and the only thing I know is show business. I went around during the last war and I saw that the boys needed something besides chow and drills. I knew the same was true today, so I told the people in Washington that I would go anywhere and do an act for the Army." Shortly after the war began, he wrote
1140-435: A Brooklyn theater in 1904, Jolson began performing in blackface , which boosted his career. He began wearing blackface in all of his shows. In late 1905, Harry left the trio after an argument with Jolson. Harry had refused his request to take care of Joe Palmer, who was in a wheelchair. After Harry's departure, Jolson and Palmer worked as a duo but were not particularly successful. By 1906 they agreed to separate, and Jolson
1330-652: A Bush spokesperson replied, "This account is flatly wrong." Following bad press resulting from his remarks, Bennett clarified his position, writing: "There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country. My life experiences, ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King , made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war
1520-508: A New Orleans hotel to an audience of 35 million via 47 radio stations. His own 1930s shows included Presenting Al Jolson (1932) and Shell Chateau (1935), and he was the host of the Kraft Music Hall from 1947 to 1949, with Oscar Levant as a sardonic, piano-playing sidekick. Jolson's 1940s career revival was nothing short of a success despite the competition of younger performers such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra , and he
1710-409: A career in commercial art . He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens. Bennett attended New York's School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique. But he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for
1900-429: A career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" would not last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations. The result was the 1957 album The Beat of My Heart . It featured well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley , with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey , Jo Jones , Latin star Candido Camero , and Chico Hamilton . The album
2090-487: A comedy sequence with Jolson doggedly trying to sing "Mammy" while The Yacht Club Boys keep telling him such songs are outdated. According to jazz historian Michael Alexander, Jolson had once griped that "People have been making fun of Mammy songs, and I don't really think that it's right that they should, for after all, Mammy songs are the fundamental songs of our country." (He said this, in character, in his 1926 short A Plantation Act .) In this film, he notes, "Jolson had
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#17327801638602280-473: A drum made by stretching skin over a flour-barrel. Lavish festivals with African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music: Usually such music was associated with annual festivals, when
2470-410: A father who was ailing and unable to work, the children grew up in poverty. John Sr. instilled in his son a love of art and literature, and a compassion for human suffering, but died when Tony was ten years old. Bennett grew up listening to Al Jolson , Eddie Cantor , Judy Garland , and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong , Jack Teagarden , and Joe Venuti . His uncle Dick
2660-456: A form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of African-American slaves on plantations. These work songs were commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also improvisational. Classical music performance is evaluated more by its fidelity to the musical score , with less attention given to interpretation, ornamentation, and accompaniment. The classical performer's goal
2850-718: A hundred shows a year by the end of the 1990s. In concert, he often made a point of singing one song (usually " Fly Me to the Moon ") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating his skills at vocal projection . One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco , was made into a PBS special. He conceptualized and starred in the first episode of the A&;E Network 's popular Live by Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award . He made cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout , Analyze This , and Bruce Almighty . In 1998, Bennett performed on
3040-468: A letter to Steven Early, press secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt , volunteering "to head a committee for the entertainment of soldiers and said that he "would work without pay ... [and] would gladly assist in the organization to be set up for this purpose". A few weeks later, he received his first tour schedule from the newly formed United Services Organization (USO), "the group his letter to Early had helped create". He did as many as four shows
3230-410: A limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another "voice". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format and arrange them in
3420-596: A long practice of recording show tunes . "Stranger in Paradise" was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later. Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder and harder for existing pop singers to do well commercially. Nevertheless, Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the Billboard Top 40 during
3610-586: A major label and by 1977, it was out of business. As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing many concerts outside of Las Vegas . He had developed a drug addiction , was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home. After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here", he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear
3800-496: A matter of endless study, observation, energetic concentration to obtain, perfectly if possible, a simulation of the kind of man he was. It is not surprising, therefore, that while making The Jolson Story , I spent 107 days before the cameras and lost eighteen pounds in weight." From a review in Variety : But the real star of the production is that Jolson voice and that Jolson medley (curiously, even astoundingly uncredited) . It
3990-450: A medium as intimate as television. He finally relented in 1950, when it was announced that Jolson had signed an agreement to appear on the CBS television network, presumably in a series of specials. However, he died suddenly before production began. Japanese bombs on Pearl Harbor shook Jolson out of continuing moods of lethargy due to years of little activity and "... he dedicated himself to
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#17327801638604180-460: A multi- strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords . Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time. The last four measures of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) are shown below. African-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants,
4370-481: A new mission in life.... Even before the U.S.O. began to set up a formal program overseas, Jolson was deluging War and Navy Department brass with phone calls and wires. He requested permission to go anywhere in the world where there was an American serviceman who wouldn't mind listening to 'Sonny Boy' or 'Mammy'.... [and] early in 1942, Jolson became the first star to perform at a GI base in World War II". From
4560-518: A pitch which he called a 'jazz ball' "because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it". The use of the word in a musical context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune . Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916, Times-Picayune article about "jas bands". In an interview with National Public Radio , musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of
4750-660: A popular music form. Handy wrote about his adopting of the blues: The primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key
4940-777: A previous CD release, as well as some unreleased material and rarities. In December 2011, Bennett appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in Salford in the presence of Princess Anne . In the wake of the premature deaths of Winehouse and Whitney Houston , Bennett called for the legalization of drugs in February 2012. In October 2012, Bennett released Viva Duets , an album of Latin American music duets, featuring Vicente Fernández , Juan Luis Guerra , and Vicentico among others. The recording and filming for
5130-639: A segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . In September 2011, Bennett appeared on The Howard Stern Show and named American military actions in the Middle East as the root cause of the September 11 attacks . Bennett also claimed that former President George W. Bush personally told him at the Kennedy Center in December 2005 that he felt he had made a mistake invading Iraq , to which
5320-514: A sense that something remarkable was happening. Jolson's "Wait a minute" line provoked shouts of pleasure and applause from the audience, who were dumbfounded by seeing and hearing someone speak on a film for the first time, so much so that the double-entendre was missed at first. After each Jolson song, the audience applauded. Excitement mounted as the film progressed, and when Jolson began his scene with Eugenie Besserer , "the audience became hysterical". According to film historian Scott Eyman , "by
5510-672: A suggestion from a teacher at the American Theatre Wing, he developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as he sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians—such as that of Stan Getz 's saxophone and Art Tatum 's piano—helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song. He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for a small outfit called Leslie Records, but they failed to sell. In 1949, Pearl Bailey recognized Benedetto's talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village . She had invited Bob Hope to
5700-488: A vaudeville performer known as Harry Yoelson. The brothers worked for the William Morris Agency . Jolson and Harry formed a team with Joe Palmer. During their time with Palmer, they were able to gain bookings in a nationwide tour. However, live performances were falling in popularity as nickelodeons attracted audiences; by 1908, nickelodeon theaters were dominant throughout New York City. While performing in
5890-412: A voice, the warmth, the excitement, the vibrations of it, the way its rambling spontaneity lays bare the imagination of the mind that is making up the sounds ... [and] the addition of a Vitaphone voice revealed the particular qualities of Al Jolson that made him a star. Not only the eyes are a window on the soul. With Warner Bros. Al Jolson made his first "all-talking" picture, The Singing Fool (1928),
Tony Bennett - Misplaced Pages Continue
6080-494: A wider, more national audience. The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of " Blue Velvet " was also very popular and attracted screaming teenage fans at concerts at the famed Paramount Theater in New York (Bennett did seven shows a day, starting at 10:30 am) and elsewhere. A third number-one came in 1953 with " Rags to Riches ". Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this
6270-910: Is Al Jolson", showcasing Jolson's complex legacy in American society. Asa Yoelson was Jewish. He was born in the village of Srednike ( Yiddish : סרעדניק ), now known as Seredžius , near Kaunas in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire . He was the fifth and youngest child of Nechama "Naomi" (née Cantor, c. 1858 –1895) and Moses Rubin Yoelson ( c. 1858 –1945); his four siblings were Rose ( c. 1879 –1939), Etta ( c. 1880 –1948), another sister who died in infancy, and Hirsch (Harry) ( c. 1882 –1953). Jolson did not know his date of birth, as birth records were not kept at that time in that region, and he gave his birth year as 1885. In 1891, his father, who
6460-490: Is Mr. Jolson's best film and well it might be, for that clever director, Lewis Milestone , guided its destiny ... a combination of fun, melody and romance, with a dash of satire...." Another review added, "A film to welcome back, especially for what it tries to do for the progress of the American musical...." In 1934, he starred in a movie version of his earlier stage play Wonder Bar , co-starring Kay Francis , Dolores del Río , Ricardo Cortez , and Dick Powell . The movie
6650-495: Is a recording engineer who worked on a number of Tony's projects and who opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey in 2001, now shuttered due to the downturn of major label budgets combined with skyrocketing overhead. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer who opened shows for her father. On August 3, 2006, Bennett turned 80 years old. His record label celebrated by releasing reissues, compilations, and
6840-535: Is a "musical Grand Hotel , set in the Parisian nightclub owned by Al Wonder (Jolson). Wonder entertains and banters with his international clientele." Reviews were generally positive: " Wonder Bar has got about everything. Romance, flash, dash, class, color, songs, star-studded talent and almost every known requisite to assure sturdy attention and attendance.... It's Jolson's comeback picture in every respect."; and, "Those who like Jolson should see Wonder Bar for it
7030-454: Is a construct" which designates "a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition". Duke Ellington , one of jazz's most famous figures, said, "It's all music." Although jazz is considered difficult to define, in part because it contains many subgenres, improvisation is one of its defining elements. The centrality of improvisation is attributed to the influence of earlier forms of music such as blues ,
7220-693: Is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example "Souvenirs From Havana" (1859)). Tresillo (shown below) is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora . Tresillo
7410-558: Is a reminder of "an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions". Amiri Baraka argues that there is a "white jazz" genre that expresses whiteness . White jazz musicians appeared in the Midwest and in other areas throughout the U.S. Papa Jack Laine , who ran the Reliance band in New Orleans in the 1910s, was called "the father of white jazz". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band , whose members were white, were
7600-453: Is central to other white jazz biopics such as The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Benny Goodman Story (1955)". "Once we accept a semantic change from singing to playing the clarinet, The Benny Goodman Story becomes an almost transparent reworking of The Jazz Singer ... and The Jolson Story ." A sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949), opened at Loew 's State Theatre in New York and received positive reviews: "Mr. Jolson's name
7790-493: Is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. "By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions," jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. "Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed." In
Tony Bennett - Misplaced Pages Continue
7980-463: Is mainly Jolson; singing the old reliables; cracking jokes which would have impressed Noah as depressingly ancient; and moving about with characteristic energy." Jolson's last Warner vehicle was The Singing Kid (1936), a parody of Jolson's stage persona (he plays a character named Al Jackson) in which he mocks his stage histrionics and taste for "mammy" songs — the latter via a number by E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen titled "I Love to Singa", and
8170-621: Is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one", and later say, "It was a nightmare that's permanent. I just said, 'This is not life. This is not life. ' " At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of the Kaufering concentration camp , a subcamp of Dachau , near Landsberg , where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held. He later wrote in his autobiography that "I saw things no human being should ever have to see." Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of
8360-529: Is the lowest form of human behavior." In September 2011, Bennett released Duets II , a follow-up to his first collaboration album, in conjunction with his 85th birthday. He sang duets with seventeen prominent singers of varying techniques, including Aretha Franklin , Willie Nelson , Queen Latifah , and Lady Gaga . Bennett appeared on the season 2 premiere of the television procedural Blue Bloods performing "It Had To Be You" with Carrie Underwood . His duet with Amy Winehouse on " Body and Soul "—reportedly
8550-514: Is the old-time minstrel man turned to modern account. With a song, a word, or even a suggestion he calls forth spontaneous laughter. And here you have the definition of a born comedian." Before The Jazz Singer , Jolson starred in the talking film A Plantation Act . This simulation of a stage performance by Jolson was presented in a program of musical shorts, demonstrating the Vitaphone sound-film process. The soundtrack for A Plantation Act
8740-437: Is to play the composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized by the product of interaction and collaboration, placing less value on the contribution of the composer, if there is one, and more on the performer. The jazz performer interprets a tune in individual ways, never playing the same composition twice. Depending on the performer's mood, experience, and interaction with band members or audience members,
8930-512: Is up in lights again and Broadway is wreathed in smiles", wrote Thomas Pryor in The New York Times . "That's as it should be, for Jolson Sings Again is an occasion which warrants some lusty cheering...." Jolson did a tour of New York film theaters to plug the movie, traveling with a police convoy to make timetables for all showings, often ad libbing jokes and performing songs for the audience. Extra police were on duty as crowds jammed
9120-520: The Billboard Hot 100 , it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure. The album of the same title was a top 5 hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance for Bennett. Over the years, this would become known as Bennett's signature song . In 2001, it
9310-649: The Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. He mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey , nightclub. Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944, during
9500-625: The Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily use a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns. An 1885 account says that they were making strange music (Creole) on an equally strange variety of 'instruments'—washboards, washtubs, jugs, boxes beaten with sticks or bones and
9690-817: The Billboard Century Award ; and guest-mentoring on American Idol season 6 as well as performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ' Humanitarian Award. Bennett was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2006. In 2008, Bennett made two appearances with Billy Joel singing " New York State of Mind " at the final concerts given at Shea Stadium , and in October released
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#17327801638609880-617: The Dixieland jazz revival of the 1940s, Black musicians rejected it as being shallow nostalgia entertainment for white audiences. On the other hand, traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, and jazz fusion as forms of debasement and betrayal. An alternative view is that jazz can absorb and transform diverse musical styles. By avoiding the creation of norms, jazz allows avant-garde styles to emerge. For some African Americans, jazz has drawn attention to African-American contributions to culture and history. For others, jazz
10070-544: The Great American Songbook ) were necessary or desirable. Accordingly, Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman , a show with a younger, "hip" audience. This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien , Sesame Street , The Simpsons , Muppets Tonight , and various MTV programs. In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around
10260-647: The Long Island Music Hall of Fame . Bennett frequently donated his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he was sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit". In April 2002, he joined Michael Jackson , Chris Tucker , and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York City's Apollo Theater . He also recorded public service announcements for Civitan International . Danny Bennett continued to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett
10450-522: The MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. Bennett continued to create popular and critically praised work into the 21st century. He attracted renewed acclaim late in his career for his collaboration with Lady Gaga , which began with the album Cheek to Cheek (2014); the two performers toured together to promote the album throughout 2014 and 2015. With the release of the duo's second album, Love for Sale (2021), Bennett broke
10640-716: The Verve division of MGM Records ( Philips in the UK) and relocated for a stint in London, where he hosted a television show from the Talk of the Town nightclub in conjunction with Thames Television , Tony Bennett at the Talk of the Town . With his new label, he tried a variety of approaches, including some more Beatles material, but found no renewed commercial success, and in a couple more years he
10830-442: The occupying force but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces. His dining with a black friend from high school—at a time when the Army was still racially segregated —led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties. Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari (a name he had started using before
11020-519: The "50 Bands To See Before You Die". On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor . Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful". The following year, Bennett was inducted into
11210-411: The 1920s Jazz Age , it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music . Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes , complex chords , call and response vocals , polyrhythms and improvisation . As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in
11400-451: The 1950s, many women jazz instrumentalists were prominent, some sustaining long careers. Some of the most distinctive improvisers, composers, and bandleaders in jazz have been women. Trombonist Melba Liston is acknowledged as the first female horn player to work in major bands and to make a real impact on jazz, not only as a musician but also as a respected composer and arranger, particularly through her collaborations with Randy Weston from
11590-476: The 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz . The origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm , a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning ' pep, energy ' . The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described
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#173278016386011780-566: The 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division , a unit filling in for the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of the Bulge . He moved across France and later into Germany . As March 1945 began, he joined the front line of what he would later describe as a "front-row seat in hell". As the German Army was pushed back to its homeland, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them. At
11970-551: The Alice Faye- Don Ameche film Hollywood Cavalcade . Guest appearances in two more Fox films followed that same year, but Jolson never starred in a full-length feature film again. After the George M. Cohan film biography, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a similar film could be made about Al Jolson. Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Harry Cohn ,
12160-904: The Arts in Astoria, Queens , New York, along with Exploring the Arts, a non-profit arts education program. He sold more than 50 million records worldwide and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman in the European Theater . Afterward, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with " Because of You " in 1951. Several popular tracks such as " Rags to Riches " followed in early 1953. He then refined his approach to encompass jazz singing . He reached an artistic peak in
12350-599: The Billboard charts, extending the 88-year-old Bennett's record for the oldest artist to do so, which earned him the Guinness World Records for "oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album", at the age of 88 years and 69 days. In October 2014, Bennett and Lady Gaga released the concert special Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live! , and at the end of
12540-638: The Black middle-class. Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The African use of pentatonic scales contributed to
12730-464: The Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through "body rhythms" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba dancing . In the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman , what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was "Afro-Latin music", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo
12920-492: The Coast, and since Duke Ellington and his band had done a film, wasn't it possible for me and the band to do this one with Jolson. Frenchy got on the phone to California, spoke to someone connected with the film and the next thing I knew the band and I were booked into Chicago on our way to California for the film, The Singing Kid . We had a hell of a time, although I had some pretty rough arguments with Harold Arlen, who had written
13110-468: The Ku Klux Klan. Bennett refused to perform in apartheid South Africa. Ralph Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965. There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs and, in this vein, Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same. Bennett was very reluctant and, when he tried, the results pleased no one. This
13300-521: The Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great. As Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with
13490-665: The Starlight Roof at the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . He entertained audiences with a light elegant musical style which remained popular with audiences for nearly three decades from the 1930s until the late 1950s. Jazz originated in the late-19th to early-20th century. It developed out of many forms of music, including blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . It also incorporated interpretations of American and European classical music, entwined with African and slave folk songs and
13680-589: The U.S. Female jazz performers and composers have contributed to jazz throughout its history. Although Betty Carter , Ella Fitzgerald , Adelaide Hall , Billie Holiday , Peggy Lee , Abbey Lincoln , Anita O'Day , Dinah Washington , and Ethel Waters were recognized for their vocal talent, less familiar were bandleaders, composers, and instrumentalists such as pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong , trumpeter Valaida Snow , and songwriters Irene Higginbotham and Dorothy Fields . Women began playing instruments in jazz in
13870-487: The Winter Garden, Jolson told the audience, "You ain't heard nothing yet" before performing additional songs. In the play, he debuted his signature blackface character "Gus". Winter Garden owner Lee Shubert signed Jolson to a seven-year contract with a salary of $ 1,000 a week. Jolson reprised his role as "Gus" in future plays and by 1914 achieved so much popularity with theater audiences that his $ 1,000-a-week salary
14060-453: The World on a String " and " The Best Is Yet To Come ". It was a big success and like Garland's, the concert was recorded for posterity, further cementing Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad. Bennett also appeared on television, and in October 1962 he sang on the initial broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . "For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in
14250-420: The age of 35, Jolson was the youngest man in American history to have a theatre named after him. But on the opening night of Bombo , the first performance at the new theatre, he suffered from stage fright, walking up and down the streets for hours before showtime. Out of fear, he lost his voice backstage and begged the stagehands not to raise the curtains. But when the curtains went up, he "was [still] standing in
14440-415: The air.' After Dockstader refuses to accommodate Jolson's revolutionary concept, the narrative chronicles his climb to stardom as he allegedly injects jazz into his blackface performances.... Jolson's success is built on anticipating what Americans really want. Dockstader performs the inevitable function of the guardian of the status quo, whose hidebound commitment to what is about to become obsolete reinforces
14630-485: The album A Swingin' Christmas with The Count Basie Big Band , for which he made a number of promotional appearances at holiday time. In 2009, Bennett performed at the conclusion of the final Macworld Conference & Expo for Apple Inc. , singing "The Best Is Yet to Come" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to a standing ovation, and later making his Jazz Fest debut in New Orleans . In February 2010, Bennett
14820-531: The album Duets: An American Classic , which reached his highest chart position ever and won a Grammy Award. Concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW /106.7; a performance was done with Christina Aguilera and a comedy sketch was made with affectionate Bennett impressionist Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live ; a Thanksgiving -time, Rob Marshall -directed television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic on NBC , which went on to win multiple Emmy Awards ; receipt of
15010-400: The audience's sympathy with the forward-looking hero. This has been a theme which was traditionally "dear to the hearts of the men who made the movies". Film historian George Custen describes this "common scenario, in which the hero is vindicated for innovations that are initially greeted with resistance.... [T]he struggle of the heroic protagonist who anticipates changes in cultural attitudes
15200-493: The audience, "I'm a happy man tonight." In March 1922, he moved the production to the larger Century Theater for a benefit performance to aid injured Jewish veterans of World War I. After taking the show on the road for a season, he returned in May 1923, to perform Bombo at the Winter Garden. The reviewer for The New York Times wrote, "He returned like the circus, bigger and brighter and newer than ever.... Last night's audience
15390-574: The band and I got out to Hollywood, we were treated like pure royalty. Here were Jolson and I living in adjacent penthouses in a very plush hotel. We were costars in the film so we received equal treatment, no question about it. The Singing Kid was not one of the studio's major attractions (it was released by the First National subsidiary), and Jolson did not even rate star billing. " I Love to Singa " later appeared in Tex Avery 's cartoon of
15580-552: The blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic , rural blues and early jazz "was largely based on concepts of heterophony ". During the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized
15770-422: The burgeoning television industry: "I call it smell-evision." Writer Hal Kanter recalled that Jolson's own idea of his television debut would be a corporate-sponsored, extra-length spectacular that would feature him as the only performer, and would be telecast without interruption. Even though he had several TV offers at the time, Jolson was apprehensive about how his larger than life performances would come across in
15960-422: The business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more." — Frank Sinatra , in a 1965 Life magazine interview Also in 1962, Bennett released his recording of " I Left My Heart in San Francisco ", a decade-old but little-known song originally written for an opera singer. Although this single only reached number 19 on
16150-606: The charts since 1972. Henry Mancini 's theme song "Life in a Looking Glass" from the Blake Edwards motion picture " That's Life " (1986), sung by Bennett, received a nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Song. Danny Bennett felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance. No changes to Tony's formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally
16340-457: The company. According to film historian Krin Gabbard, The Jolson Story goes further than any of the earlier films in exploring the significance of blackface and the relationships that whites have developed with blacks in the area of music. To him, the film seems to imply an inclination of white performers, like Jolson, who are possessed with "the joy of life and enough sensitivity to appreciate
16530-475: The confidence to rhyme 'Mammy' with 'Uncle Sammy'", adding "Mammy songs, along with the vocation 'Mammy singer', were inventions of the Jewish Jazz Age." The film also gave a boost to the career of black singer and bandleader Cab Calloway , who performed a number of songs alongside Jolson. In his autobiography, Calloway writes about this episode: {{blockquote|I'd heard Al Jolson was doing a new film on
16720-465: The country. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter , Gershwin —they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out." During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look-back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as
16910-555: The development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains: Many of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt: W. C. Handy became interested in folk blues of the Deep South while traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within
17100-434: The early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles , biguine , ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation . However, jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands , Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), and gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were
17290-509: The early 1920s, drawing particular recognition on piano. When male jazz musicians were drafted during World War II, many all-female bands replaced them. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm , which was founded in 1937, was a popular band that became the first all-female integrated band in the U.S. and the first to travel with the USO , touring Europe in 1945. Women were members of the big bands of Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson . Beginning in
17480-480: The education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows , and in vaudeville , during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as
17670-598: The end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers; during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River , and by the end of the month reached the Danube . During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times. The experience made him a pacifist ; he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war
17860-414: The end of the year, the circus had folded and Jolson was again out of work. In May 1903, the head producer of the burlesque show Dainty Duchess Burlesquers agreed to give Jolson a part in one show. He performed "Be My Baby Bumble Bee", and the producer agreed to keep him, but the show closed by the end of the year. He avoided financial troubles by forming a vaudeville partnership with his brother Hirsch,
18050-556: The entertainer Ernest Hogan , whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William Krell published his " Mississippi Rag " as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his "Harlem Rag", the first rag published by an African-American. Classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his " Original Rags " in 1898 and, in 1899, had an international hit with " Maple Leaf Rag ",
18240-498: The experience and did not seek further roles. A firm believer in the Civil Rights Movement , Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches . He performed in the "Stars for Freedom" rally the night before Martin Luther King's " How Long, Not Long " speech. At the conclusion of the march, Bennett was driven to the airport by Viola Liuzzo , a mother of five from Detroit, who was murdered later that day by
18430-636: The family was reunited. Jolson's mother, Naomi, died at 37 in early 1895, and he was in a state of withdrawal for seven months. He spent time at the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys , a progressive reformatory/home for orphans run by the Xaverian Brothers in Baltimore. After being introduced to show business in 1895 by Al Reeves , Asa and Hirsch became fascinated by it, and by 1897 the brothers were singing for coins on local street corners, using
18620-430: The film was being run. "She pinned herself against a wall in the dark and watched the faces in the crowd. In that moment just before 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie,' she remembered, 'A miracle occurred. Moving pictures really came alive. To see the expressions on their faces, when Joley spoke to them ... you'd have thought they were listening to the voice of God.'" "Everybody was mad for the talkies," said movie star Gregory Peck in
18810-555: The film's end, the Warner brothers had shown an audience something they had never known, moved them in a way they hadn't expected. The tumultuous ovation at curtain proved that Jolson was not merely the right man for the part of Jackie Rabinowitz, alias Jack Robin; he was the right man for the entire transition from silent fantasy to talking realism. The audience, transformed into what one critic called, 'a milling, battling mob' stood, stamped, and cheered 'Jolson, Jolson, Jolson!'" Vitaphone
19000-408: The final day of a mud-soaked Glastonbury Festival in an immaculate suit and tie, his whole set on this occasion consisting of songs about the weather. His autobiography The Good Life was also first published in 1998. A series of albums, often based on themes (such as Duke Ellington , Louis Armstrong , Billie Holiday , blues , or duets), met with largely positive reviews. For his contribution to
19190-570: The final stages of World War II . He did basic training at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson as part of becoming an infantry rifleman . Benedetto ran afoul of a sergeant from the South who disliked the Italian from New York City; heavy doses of KP duty or BAR cleaning resulted. Processed through the huge Le Havre replacement depot , in January 1945, he was assigned as a replacement infantryman to
19380-459: The first jazz group to record, and Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent jazz soloists of the 1920s. The Chicago Style was developed by white musicians such as Eddie Condon , Bud Freeman , Jimmy McPartland , and Dave Tough . Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of swing during the 1930s. Many bands included both Black and white musicians. These musicians helped change attitudes toward race in
19570-564: The first time he had reached it himself. A model of Koss headphones , the Tony Bennett Signature Edition (TBSE1), was created for this milestone (Bennett having been one of the early adopters of the Koss product back in the 1960s). In November 2011, Columbia released Tony Bennett – The Complete Collection , a 73-CD plus 3-DVD set, which although not absolutely "complete", finally brought forth many albums that had not had
19760-633: The first time in Israel, with his jazz quartet at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv , receiving a standing ovation. He also made a surprise cameo appearance on stage with Lady Gaga at Yarkon Park , Tel Aviv, the previous evening. The performance took place days before the release that month of the two stars' much-delayed collaborative effort and resultant Grammy-winning album, Cheek to Cheek , which debuted at number one on
19950-415: The first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803). From the perspective of African-American music, the "habanera rhythm" (also known as "congo"), "tango-congo", or tango . can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat . The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States and reinforced and inspired
20140-532: The habanera rhythm and cinquillo , are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin and Turpin. Joplin's " Solace " (1909) is generally considered to be in the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk," whilst Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass". In
20330-453: The head of Columbia Pictures agreed. It was directed by Alfred E. Green , best remembered for the pre-Code Baby Face (1933), with musical numbers staged by Joseph H. Lewis . With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and Columbia contract player Larry Parks playing Jolson, The Jolson Story (1946) became one of the biggest box-office hits of the year. In a tribute to Jolson, Larry Parks wrote, "Stepping into his shoes was, for me,
20520-565: The individual record for the longest run of a top-10 album on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist; his first top-10 record was I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1962. Bennett also broke the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material , at the age of 95 years and 60 days. In February 2021, Bennett revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016. Due to
20710-424: The influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre. By the 18th century, slaves in the New Orleans area gathered socially at a special market, in an area which later became known as Congo Square , famous for its African dances. By 1866,
20900-460: The instruments of jazz: brass, drums, and reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale. Small bands contained a combination of self-taught and formally educated musicians, many from the funeral procession tradition. These bands traveled in black communities in the deep south. Beginning in 1914, Louisiana Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which carried jazz to cities in
21090-562: The last recording she made before her death—charted on the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 , making Bennett the oldest living artist to appear there, as well as the artist with the greatest span of appearances. The single did well in Europe, where it reached the top 15 in several countries. The album then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 , making Bennett the oldest living artist to reach that top spot, as well as marking
21280-578: The late 1950s into the 1990s. Jewish Americans played a significant role in jazz. As jazz spread, it developed to encompass many different cultures, and the work of Jewish composers in Tin Pan Alley helped shape the many different sounds that jazz came to incorporate. Jewish Americans were able to thrive in Jazz because of the probationary whiteness that they were allotted at the time. George Bornstein wrote that African Americans were sympathetic to
21470-406: The late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings . In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song , " I Left My Heart in San Francisco ". His career and personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his reach to
21660-539: The late 1950s, using the mode , or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation, as did free jazz , which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music 's rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in
21850-530: The latter part of the 1950s, with " In the Middle of an Island " (which he vehemently hated) reaching the highest at number nine in 1957. For a month in August–September 1956, Bennett hosted an NBC Saturday night television variety show, The Tony Bennett Show , as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show . Patti Page and Julius La Rosa had in turn hosted the two previous months, and they all shared
22040-536: The likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav , and as his " Steppin' Out with My Baby " video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises." The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged . (He quipped on
22230-955: The many top players he employed, such as George Brunies , Sharkey Bonano , and future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band . During the early 1900s, jazz was mostly performed in African-American and mulatto communities due to segregation laws. Storyville brought jazz to a wider audience through tourists who visited the port city of New Orleans. Many jazz musicians from African-American communities were hired to perform in bars and brothels. These included Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton in addition to those from other communities, such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez . Louis Armstrong started his career in Storyville and found success in Chicago. Storyville
22420-413: The melody was stated briefly at the beginning and most of the piece was improvised. Modal jazz abandoned chord progressions to allow musicians to improvise even more. In many forms of jazz, a soloist is supported by a rhythm section of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar), double bass, and drums. The rhythm section plays chords and rhythms that outline the composition structure and complement
22610-423: The movie's length, including " April Showers " and " Avalon ". Reviewers wrote, "Mr Jolson's singing of Mammy , California, Here I Come and others is something for the memory book" and "Of the three co-stars this is Jolson's picture ... because it's a pretty good catalog in anybody's hit parade." The movie was released on DVD in October 2008. 20th Century Fox hired him to recreate a scene from The Jazz Singer in
22800-463: The movie, he persuaded the studio to let him appear in one musical sequence, " Swanee ", shot entirely in long shot, with Jolson in blackface singing and dancing onto the runway leading into the middle of the theater. In the wake of the film's success and his World War II tours, Jolson became a top singer among the American public once more. Decca signed Jolson and he recorded for Decca from 1945 until his death, making his last commercial recordings for
22990-515: The music I make." Danny and Dae's band, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends , had floundered and the former realized he was not musically talented but had a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent, but had trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father's manager. Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York City, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from
23180-697: The music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African American cultures. The Black Codes outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in
23370-583: The music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clavé", a Spanish word meaning "code" or "key", as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although the pattern is only half a clave , Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz. The abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for
23560-409: The music. Arlen was the songwriter for many of the finest Cotton Club revues, but he had done some interpretations for The Singing Kid that I just couldn't go along with. He was trying to change my style and I was fighting it. Finally, Jolson stepped in and said to Arlen, 'Look, Cab knows what he wants to do; let him do it his way.' After that, Arlen left me alone. And talk about integration: Hell, when
23750-498: The musical Vera Violetta which opened on November 20, 1911, and like La Belle Paree it was a success. In the show, he again sang in blackface and became so popular that his weekly salary of $ 500 (based on his success in La Belle Paree ) was increased to $ 750. After Vera Violetta closed, Jolson starred in another musical, The Whirl of Society , propelling his career on Broadway to new heights. During his time at
23940-599: The musical accomplishments of blacks". To support his view he describes a significant part of the movie: While wandering around New Orleans before a show with Dockstader's Minstrels, he enters a small club where a group of black jazz musicians are performing. Jolson has a revelation, that the staid repertoire of the minstrel troupe can be transformed by actually playing black music in blackface. He tells Dockstader that he wants to sing what he has just experienced: 'I heard some music tonight, something they call jazz. Some fellows just make it up as they go along. They pick it up out of
24130-485: The names "Al" and "Harry". They often used the money to buy tickets to the National Theater . They spent most of their days working different jobs as a team. In the spring of 1902, Jolson accepted a job with Walter L. Main's circus. Although Main had hired him as an usher, Main was impressed by Jolson's singing voice and gave him a position as a singer during the circus's Indian Medicine Side Show segment. By
24320-417: The next couple of years, Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes ; his last top-40 single was the number 34 " If I Ruled the World " from the musical Pickwick in 1965, but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the poorly received 1966 film The Oscar met with middling reviews for Bennett; he did not enjoy
24510-467: The northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe 's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York City, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson 's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides
24700-618: The northern and western parts of the U.S. Jazz became international in 1914, when the Creole Band with cornettist Freddie Keppard performed the first ever jazz concert outside the United States, at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg , Canada. In New Orleans, a white bandleader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. He was known as "the father of white jazz" because of
24890-470: The performer may change melodies, harmonies, and time signatures. In early Dixieland , a.k.a. New Orleans jazz, performers took turns playing melodies and improvising countermelodies . In the swing era of the 1920s–40s, big bands relied more on arrangements which were written or learned by ear and memorized. Soloists improvised within these arrangements. In the bebop era of the 1940s, big bands gave way to small groups and minimal arrangements in which
25080-500: The period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War. Another influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals . The origins of
25270-458: The perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has
25460-494: The plight of the Jewish American and vice versa. As disenfranchised minorities themselves, Jewish composers of popular music saw themselves as natural allies with African Americans. The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson is one example of how Jewish Americans were able to bring jazz, music that African Americans developed, into popular culture. Benny Goodman was a vital Jewish American to the progression of Jazz. Goodman
25650-459: The post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. "The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms ," observed
25840-676: The pre-jazz era and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music. The music of New Orleans , Louisiana had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. In New Orleans, slaves could practice elements of their culture such as voodoo and playing drums. Many early jazz musicians played in the bars and brothels of the red-light district around Basin Street called Storyville . In addition to dance bands, there were marching bands which played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals ). The instruments used by marching bands and dance bands became
26030-461: The producer and star of Dockstader's Minstrels. Jolson accepted Dockstader's offer and became a blackface performer. According to Esquire magazine, " J.J. Shubert , impressed by Jolson's overpowering display of energy, booked him for La Belle Paree , a musical comedy that opened at the Winter Garden in 1911. Within a month Jolson was a star. From then until 1926, when he retired from
26220-618: The project, in Fort Lauderdale , was co-sponsored by the city. On October 31, 2012, Bennett performed "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in front of more than 100,000 fans at a City Hall ceremony commemorating the 2012 World Series victory by the San Francisco Giants . He published another memoir, Life is a Gift: The Zen of Bennett , and a documentary film produced by his son Danny was released, also titled The Zen of Bennett . In September 2014, Bennett performed for
26410-537: The prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines. The mid-1950s saw the emergence of hard bop , which introduced influences from rhythm and blues , gospel , and blues to small groups and particularly to saxophone and piano. Modal jazz developed in
26600-621: The recording industry, Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street . Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002. In 2002, Q magazine named Bennett in its list of
26790-589: The reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era. In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall , using a stellar lineup of musicians including Al Cohn , Kenny Burrell , and Candido , as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. Carnegie Hall had not featured a male pop performer until then (only Judy Garland one year before that). The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like " I've Got
26980-410: The rhythm and bassline. In Ohio and elsewhere in the mid-west the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by
27170-406: The role to Jolson because he agreed to help finance the film. Harry Warner 's daughter, Doris, remembered the opening night, and said that when the picture started she was still crying over the loss of her beloved uncle Sam. He had been planning to be at the performance but died suddenly, at the age of 40, on the previous day. However, halfway through the 89-minute film, she began to be overtaken by
27360-456: The same name. The movie also became the first important role for future child star Sybil Jason in a scene directed by Busby Berkeley . Jason remembers that Berkeley worked on the film although he is not credited. His next movie—his first with Twentieth Century-Fox —was Rose of Washington Square (1939). It stars Jolson, Alice Faye and Tyrone Power , and included many of Jolson's best known songs, although several songs were cut to shorten
27550-563: The same singers, dancers, and orchestra. In 1959, Bennett would again fill in for The Perry Como Show , this time alongside Teresa Brewer and Jaye P. Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long Perry Presents. In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director. Bennett released his first long-playing album in 1955, Cloud 7 . The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Bennett's leanings towards jazz. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist, arranger, and musical director, replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that
27740-512: The show, "I've been unplugged my whole career.") Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had an affinity for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for
27930-408: The show. Hope decided to take Benedetto on the road with him and shortened his name to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of " Boulevard of Broken Dreams " and was signed to the major label Columbia Records by Mitch Miller . Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner of commercial pop tunes . His first big hit
28120-556: The slang connotations of the term, saying: "When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z'. It wasn't called that. It was spelled 'J-A-S-S'. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies." The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the 20th Century . Jazz is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to rock -infused fusion . Attempts have been made to define jazz from
28310-526: The slow progression of his illness, he continued to record, tour, and perform until his retirement from concerts due to physical challenges, which was announced after his final performances on August 3 and 5, 2021, at Radio City Music Hall . Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926, at St. John's Hospital in Long Island City, Queens , in New York City. His parents were grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (Suraci) Benedetto, and he
28500-444: The soloist. In avant-garde and free jazz , the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales, and meters. Since the emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form". Regarding
28690-524: The stage, he could boast an unbroken series of smash hits." On March 20, 1911, Jolson starred in his first musical revue at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City. La Belle Paree helped start his career as a singer. Opening night drew a large crowd, and he became popular with the audience by performing Stephen Foster songs in blackface. The show closed after 104 performances. After La Belle Paree , he accepted an offer to perform in
28880-456: The star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), he starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II . After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with The Jolson Story (1946), in which Larry Parks played the younger Jolson, but with sung vocals dubbed by Jolson himself. The formula
29070-562: The story of an ambitious entertainer who insisted on going on with the show even as his small son lay dying. The film was even more popular than The Jazz Singer . " Sonny Boy ", from the film, was the first American record to sell one million copies. Jolson continued to make features for Warner Bros. similar in style to The Singing Fool . These included Say It with Songs (1929), Mammy (1930), and Big Boy (1930). A restored version of Mammy , with Jolson in Technicolor sequences,
29260-475: The streets and sidewalks at each theater Jolson visited. In Chicago, a few weeks later, he sang to 100,000 people at Soldier Field, and later that night appeared at the Oriental Theatre with George Jessel where 10,000 people had to be turned away. Jolson had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, including on NBC's The Dodge Victory Hour (January 1928), singing from
29450-472: The third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year . Following his comeback, Bennett financially prospered; by 1999, his assets were worth $ 15 to 20 million. He had no intention of retiring, saying in reference to masters such as Pablo Picasso , Jack Benny , and Fred Astaire : "right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older." He continued to record and tour steadily, playing
29640-552: The time was the studio's highest-grossing movie. The award is rarely given to performers in musicals. Ironically, Cagney, who became known for his tough guy movie roles, also made a contribution to movie musicals, like the man who had discovered him. While Jolson is credited for appearing in the first movie musical, Cagney's Academy Award-winning movie was the first movie Ted Turner chose to colorize . When Jolson appeared on Steve Allen 's KNX Los Angeles radio show in 1949 to promote Jolson Sings Again , he offered his curt opinion of
29830-437: The top ten on the charts). Jolson joked about how his voice had deepened with age, saying "I got the clippetys all right, but I can't clop like I used to." In addition to his contribution to motion pictures as a performer, he is responsible for the discovery of two major stars of the golden age of Hollywood. He purchased the rights to a play he saw on Broadway and then sold the movie rights to Jack Warner (Warner Brothers which
30020-500: The twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published." For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk , ragtime , and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. Habaneras were widely available as sheet music and were
30210-556: The unsuccessful Wonder Bar . Warner Bros. allowed him to make Hallelujah, I'm a Bum with United Artists in 1933. It was directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Ben Hecht . Hecht was also active in the promotion of civil rights : "Hecht film stories featuring black characters included Hallelujah, I'm a Bum , co-starring Edgar Connor as Jolson's sidekick, in a politically savvy rhymed dialogue over Richard Rodgers music." The New York Times reviewer wrote, "The picture, some persons may be glad to hear, has no Mammy song. It
30400-575: The use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music. New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk 's piano piece "Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work "A Night in the Tropics" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers. Comparing
30590-806: The war, chosen after the city and province in Italy, and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria). He played with many musicians who would have post-war careers. Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill . He was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables. Based upon
30780-430: The wings trembling and sweating". After being shoved onto the stage by his brother Harry, he performed, then received an ovation he would never forget: "For several minutes, the applause continued while Al stood and bowed after the first act." He refused to go back on stage for the second act, but the audience "stamped its feet and chanted 'Jolson, Jolson', until he came back out". He took 37 curtain calls that night and told
30970-498: The writer Robert Palmer, speculating that "this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured." African-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century when the habanera (Cuban contradanza ) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take
31160-500: The year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered "gumbo box", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from
31350-462: The year, they kicked off their co-headlining Cheek to Cheek Tour . The pair also appeared in a Barnes & Noble commercial. Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans , Louisiana , in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . Since
31540-467: Was " Because of You ", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith . It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes , then reached number one on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for ten weeks, selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top of the charts later that year by a similarly styled rendition of Hank Williams 's " Cold, Cold Heart ", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to
31730-642: Was "arguably the single most important factor in defining the modern musical." With his dynamic style of singing, he became widely successful by extracting traditionally African-American music and popularizing it for white American audiences who would be unwilling to listen to it when performed by black artists. Despite his promotion and perpetuation of black stereotypes, his work was often well-regarded by black publications and has been credited for fighting against black discrimination on Broadway as early as 1911. In an essay written in 2000, music critic Ted Gioia remarked, "If blackface has its shameful poster boy, it
31920-548: Was a tap dancer in vaudeville , giving him an early window into show business, and his uncle Frank was the Queens borough library commissioner. By age 10 he was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge , standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. Drawing was another early passion of his; he became known as the class caricaturist at P.S. 141 and anticipated
32110-485: Was a Lithuanian-born American singer, actor, and vaudevillian . He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer". Jolson was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, as well as for popularizing many of the songs he sang. Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers". Although best remembered today as
32300-399: Was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks. Later that year, the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Kismet had Bennett record " Stranger in Paradise " as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike. The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and Bennett began
32490-474: Was both popular and critically praised. Bennett followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the first male pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band. The albums Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (1958) and In Person! (1959) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with " Chicago " being one of the standout songs. Bennett also built up the quality and, therefore,
32680-602: Was considered lost in 1933, but was found in 1995 and restored by The Vitaphone Project . Warner Bros. picked George Jessel for the role, as he had starred in the Broadway play. When Sam Warner decided to make The Jazz Singer a musical with the Vitaphone, he knew that Jolson was the star he needed. He told Jessel that he would have to sing in the movie, and Jessel balked, allowing Warner to replace him with Jolson. Jessel never got over it, and often said that Warner gave
32870-612: Was doubled. In 1916, Robinson Crusoe, Jr. was the first musical in which he was the star. In 1918, his acting career was pushed further after he starred in the hit musical Sinbad . It became the most successful Broadway musical of 1918 and 1919. " Swanee " was added to the show and became composer George Gershwin 's first hit recording. Jolson added " My Mammy ". By 1920, he had become the biggest star on Broadway. His next play, Bombo , became so successful that it went beyond Broadway to performances nationwide. It led Lee Shubert to rename his theater Jolson's 59th Street Theatre . At
33060-478: Was exemplified by Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1970), before which Bennett became physically ill at the thought of recording. It featured covers of Beatles and other current songs and a psychedelic art cover. Years later, Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he had departed Columbia for
33250-506: Was first screened in 2002. Jolson's first Technicolor appearance was a cameo in the musical Showgirl in Hollywood (1930) from First National Pictures , a Warner Bros. subsidiary. However, these films gradually proved a cycle of diminishing returns due to their comparative sameness, the regal salary that Jolson demanded, and a shift in public taste away from vaudeville musicals as the 1930s began. Jolson returned to Broadway and starred in
33440-484: Was flatteringly unwilling to go home, and when the show proper was over, Jolson reappeared before the curtain and sang more songs, old and new." "I don't mind going on record as saying that he is one of the few instinctively funny men on our stage," wrote reviewer Charles Darnton in the New York Evening World . "Everything he touches turns to fun. To watch him is to marvel at his humorous vitality. He
33630-402: Was good showmanship to cast this film with lesser people, particularly Larry Parks as the mammy kid.... As for Jolson's voice, it has never been better. Thus the magic of science has produced a composite whole to eclipse the original at his most youthful best. Parks received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor . Although the 60-year-old Jolson was too old to play a younger version of himself in
33820-476: Was intended for musical renditions, and The Jazz Singer follows this principle, with only the musical sequences using live sound recording. The moviegoers were electrified when the silent actions were interrupted periodically for a song sequence with real singing and sound. Jolson's dynamic voice, physical mannerisms, and charisma held the audience spellbound. Costar May McAvoy , according to author A. Scott Berg, could not help sneaking into theaters day after day as
34010-433: Was major ... , and I carried this device into my melody as well. The publication of his " Memphis Blues " sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but "more like a cakewalk"). This composition, as well as his later " St. Louis Blues " and others, included the habanera rhythm, and would become jazz standards . Handy's music career began in
34200-463: Was on his own. He became a regular at the Globe and Wigwam Theater in San Francisco and was successful nationwide as a vaudeville singer. He took up residence in San Francisco, saying the earthquake -devastated people needed someone to cheer them up. In 1908, Jolson, needing money for himself and his new wife, Henrietta, returned to New York. In 1909, his singing caught the attention of Lew Dockstader ,
34390-597: Was one of over 70 artists who sang on " We Are the World 25 for Haiti ", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake . In October, he performed " I Left My Heart in San Francisco " at AT&T Park before the third inning of Game 1 of the 2010 World Series and sang " God Bless America " during the seventh-inning stretch . Days later he sang " America the Beautiful " at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C., which he reprised ten years later in
34580-637: Was qualified as a rabbi and cantor , moved to New York City to secure a better future for his family. By 1894, Moses Yoelson could afford to pay the fare to bring Nechama and their four children to the U.S. By the time they arrived—as steerage passengers on the SS Umbria arriving at the Port of New York on April 9, 1894—he had found work as a cantor at Talmud Torah Congregation in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where
34770-711: Was ranked 23rd on an RIAA / NEA list of the most historically significant Songs of the 20th Century . Bennett's following album, I Wanna Be Around... (1963), was also a top-5 success, with the title track and " The Good Life " each reaching the top 20 of the pop singles chart along with the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart . The next year brought the Beatles and the British Invasion , and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over
34960-704: Was repeated in a sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949). In 1950, he again became the first star to entertain GIs on active service in the Korean War , performing 42 shows in 16 days. He died weeks after returning to the U.S., partly owing to the physical exhaustion from the performance schedule. Defense Secretary George Marshall posthumously awarded him the Medal for Merit . According to music historian Larry Stempel, "No one had heard anything quite like it before on Broadway." Stephen Banfield wrote that Jolson's style
35150-485: Was shut down by the U.S. government in 1917. Cornetist Buddy Bolden played in New Orleans from 1895 to 1906. No recordings by him exist. His band is credited with creating the big four: the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson , Yiddish : אַסאַ יואלסאָן ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950)
35340-459: Was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. In 1906, John had emigrated from Podargoni , a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria . Anna had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899. Other relatives came over as well as part of the mass migration of Italians to America . Tony grew up with an older sister, Mary, and an older brother, John Jr. With
35530-474: Was the leader of a racially integrated band named King of Swing. His jazz concert in the Carnegie Hall in 1938 was the first ever to be played there. The concert was described by Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history". Shep Fields also helped to popularize "Sweet" Jazz music through his appearances and Big band remote broadcasts from such landmark venues as Chicago's Palmer House , Broadway's Paramount Theater and
35720-486: Was the studio that had made The Jazz Singer ) with the stipulation that two of the original cast members reprise their roles in the movie. The play became the movie Penny Arcade , and the actors were Joan Blondell and James Cagney , who both went on to become contract players for the studio. The two were major ingredients in gangster movies, which were lucrative for the studio. Cagney won his Academy Award for his role in Warner Brothers' Yankee Doodle Dandy , which at
35910-451: Was voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a poll in Variety . The next year, Jolson was named "Personality of the Year" by the Variety Clubs of America. When Jolson appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show, he attributed his receiving the award to his being the only singer of any importance not to make a record of " Mule Train ", which had been a widely covered hit of that year (four different versions, one of them by Crosby, had made
36100-411: Was without a recording contract. Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv. He recorded some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans , The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976), but Improv lacked a distribution arrangement with
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