Regarding the passing of Tony Bennett

      When I first moved to New York City my survival gig when I wasn’t in the theater or doing a concert, I worked with this organization called New York City swing. They were a high-end wedding/bar mitzvah/celebration band. One of those jobs was Sumner Redstone’s wedding, the President of Viacom. His bride was 40 years his junior and a school teacher, but that’s not the point. His guests included Barbara Walters, Sylvester Stallone and a number of other celebrities including Tony Bennett. 

     That evenings festivities was to include a performance by Diana Krall in-between our third and fourth set. The time came for that performance and she was stellar, and as a bonus I got to meet Elvis Costello whom she had just started dating. For the last two songs she invited Tony Bennett up to sing. Thrilling. We got up to do our thing again in the fourth set and I sang the best is yet to come by Frank Sinatra and did my best Louis Armstrong impression on the song called “What A Wonderful World”. After those two performances I knew I was done for the evening and went to the back bar to grab a Chardonnay. 

     To my surprise, Tony Bennett catches my eye and gets up and starts to walk over to me. I panic. What could I possibly say to one of my idols? He extends his hand and says, “Hi, I’m Tony”. In my best, stressed out broken, middle school voice I strained out “I know who you are!” (As an attempt at a joke) He chuckled and said “I just wanted to come over here and tell you what an exceptional singer you are. And that Louis Armstrong impression was spot on”. 

     I was floored and at a loss for words. I blurted out “thank you Mr. Bennett” as he was starting to walk away he turned back and said, “call me Tony, kid!” 

And I thought to myself, I can die now. 

It was a testament to his legendary kindness throughout his life. He didn’t have to do that, and yet he did. What an exceptional singer. And what an exceptional human being. RIP, Tony…

Michael Lanning, July 21, 2023