Bennett Strays From His Musical Strengths

Tony Bennett has always been a favorite of jazz musicians, and with good reason. His innate sense of swing, his riff-like phrasing and--in his best moments--a Sinatra-like ability to interpret a lyric are the stuff not just of good jazz singing, but also of good pop singing as well.

Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl, Bennett’s best performances were those that retained those qualities. Tunes such as “I Wish I Were in Love Again” and “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” with their punchy rhythms and epigrammatic, couplet-like phrases, were done with precisely the right touch. It was on songs such as these that Bennett’s real skills, his carefully nurtured craft and his innate sensitivity came to the forefront.

Most of the evening, however, took a different path.

The Bennett revival that has taken place over the past decade--especially with the vital younger audience carefully cultivated by his management--has been intrinsically associated with the persona of an easygoing but hip uncle who can sing like a macho bird. And the two Grammys he won in 1995 for the “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged” album testify to the success of that campaign.

Most of his program fed that image, with arrangement after arrangement that allowed him to emphasize his still-buoyant energies by soaring to the top of his register for dramatic climaxes.

There’s no denying the impressiveness of a 71-year-old performer’s ability to render such vocal pyrotechnics. But in almost every case, they were arrived at by sacrificing the essential messages of the songs.

And, in the process, something was lost.

Songs such as “A Foggy Day” started with typically sensitive, insightful Bennett readings, only to be spoiled by sudden, intrusive shouting in the final lines or an out-of-context high note. In “Old Devil Moon” he further stressed his musical athleticism by introducing a long held note reminiscent of a solo by saxophonist Kenny G. Perhaps worst of all, his lovely interpretation of “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” completely lost its way when he set the song aside to conclude with a cadenza-like series of phrases leading up to, again, another high note.

The few brief but entrancing instances in which Bennett, the sensitive, interpretive artist, took precedence over Bennett, the MTV icon, revealed that he continues to be one of the most skillful singers in pop/jazz vocal history. His renderings of “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “All of Me,” unlike most other parts of his extensive program, were the work of a thoughtful, mature artist.

There’s no arguing with success, however, and for the overflow, enthusiastic Bowl crowd, Bennett could do no wrong. Still, it’s hard to hear how musically insightful he can be without wondering why he doesn’t choose to take that approach more often.

Bennett was aided immensely by members of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by Vincent Falcone, and pianist Ralph Sharon’s quartet (Gray Sargent, guitar; Paul Langosch, bass; and Clayton Cameron, drums) with Sargent’s guitar solo on “In a Mellow Tone,” one of the musical high points of the evening.