At 91, Tony Bennett says the best is yet to come

Perhaps America’s most universally loved singer, Tony Bennett is 91 years old. But he’s still performing, still in great form and still enjoying his career and his life.

He’ll be at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in Sarasota on Friday. He declined to do a phone interview, but he answered questions by email. He talked about his show, his painting and what keeps him going.

Here’s what he had to say:

Bradenton Herald: I saw your show last year in St. Petersburg. Your joy onstage was genuine and palpable. How do you keep up that enthusiasm after all these decades?

Tony Bennett: I love performing for people and making them happy. If at the end of the show the audience members leave the theater and say to each other that they enjoyed themselves and forgot for the evening about their own problems and concerns, that is the best reward for an entertainer.

BH: Is your daughter Antonia performing with you at this show?

Bennett: Yes, she took a bit of a break last year because she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Maya and now she is back on tour with me. And sometimes Maya comes along, which is what Antonia used to do when she was growing up and I was on tour. So the circle continues.

BH: Are you performing with a small combo at this show, as you did last year?

Bennett: I like to work with a jazz quartet as it keeps things spontaneous on stage and very much in the moment. If you have an orchestra or band on stage with you, then you are locked into the songs you are going to perform and their tempo. With a jazz quartet, they are flexible and I work with such master musicians that on the spot we can change things around — sing a different song or pace it differently.

BH: You make songs that we’ve all heard thousands of times (and that you’ve performed thousands of times) feel fresh, but yet your renditions are always faithful to the original versions. Is that a difficult balance for you, or is it natural? Or maybe it’s a skill that you’ve acquired over the years?

Bennett: Here again, I have always gravitated toward working with jazz musicians as they are so highly trained that they are then able to be completely spontaneous and they never play the same song the same way twice. I fell in love with jazz in the ’40s and spent a lot of time on 52nd Street, where all the jazz clubs used to be in New York City. In fact, when I got out of the Army, under the GI Bill of Rights, I was able to study at the American Theatre Wing. There was a vocal teacher, her name was Mimi Speer, and she gave me the best advice. She told me to listen to the jazz instrumentalists that I admired and use them to influence your vocal style. She said if you copy other singers, then you are going to sound like one of the chorus. So that is what I did and jazz has always been a great influence on me throughout my career.

BH: Do you have any new albums or any other projects in the works?

Bennett: Well, I do, but I can’t really talk about it right now as it’s still in development.

BH: You’re known primarily for recording and performing definitive versions of classic songs, but you’ve also introduced some songwriters from outside the musical mainstream to the general public (perhaps most notably Hank Williams). Are there any young or contemporary songwriters that you’re enthused about these days?

Bennett: Well, I love Stevie Wonder and I am very impressed with John Legend as well — who recorded with me on my first “Duets” album the day after he won a Grammy for Best New Artist and it’s wonderful to see how well he has done.

BH: Do your music and your painting complement each other in any way, or are they completely separate creative endeavors for you?

Bennett: Singing and painting is like a yin-yang relationship in that they are very dissimilar but together they keep me in balance and I can always stay in a creative zone and not get burned out. After a performance where you are in front of thousands of people and I am working with the musicians and the crew, I can go to my hotel or back to my art studio and be all by myself with just the blank canvas and paint. But either way I am always doing something creative.

BH: Is there a song that’s stuck in your head today? If so, what is it?

Bennett: I am always thinking, “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

Details: 8 p.m. Sept. 8, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $97-$142. 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "At 91, Tony Bennett says the best is yet to come."