Some interesting connections there.
From 2010, then 84-yr-old Tony Bennett on Louis Armstrong:
Quote:TP: People loved your set at Jazz Fest in 2009.
Bennett: That afternoon was so wonderful. I have my own little private history of playing in New Orleans. When I first started I stayed at a little hotel and hung out with the jazz artists in the center of town. Later on I started playing the Fairmont Hotel (at the Blue Room). A couple of times I played the theaters.
As far as I’m concerned, the home of Louis Armstrong is the greatest place for art and music in the whole United States.
Quote:One of the great Armstrong anecdotes is that as a boy, he was arrested for firing a gun into the air on New Year’s Eve. That put him in the boys’ home where he really learned to play cornet.
(laughs) What a great story. I didn’t know that. He’s my idol. He’s my favorite. A lot of people listen to Sinatra and Nat Cole and say, “Boy, they really swing.” People don’t realize that Louis Armstrong invented swing. He was an American genius. He actually invented bebop. Every musician I know that really knows how to play well, their idol is Louis Armstrong.
Quote:Most people know his latter-day recordings of “Hello Dolly” and other pop tunes. They’re not as familiar with his early Hot Seven and Hot Five recordings, the work he did in the ‘20s and ‘30s.
Just like anything in history…. there was an era of Impressionism in France. With music there was Ravel and Debussy and Tchaikovsky. You had Monet and Van Gogh. It was a renaissance. We had that in our country in the ‘20s and ‘30s and ‘40s. The greatest composers and musicians you could ever dream of came out of that period. Louis Armstrong was the master that inspired all the musicians. Paul Whiteman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, all of them were influenced by Louis.
They’re doing a documentary on Louis Armstrong that’s going to be something. It’s called “An American Genius: Louis Armstrong.” Quincy Jones is doing it and a fellow who wrote a couple books on Sinatra.
Quote:At Jazz Fest, you dedicated “The Good Life” to Britney Spears.
(Laughs) Now I do it to Lady Gaga. It gets a big audience reaction. Whoever the hot item is at the moment, I drop that line in, and it gets a big laugh. You have to put a little humor in; it lightens up the show. It’s in the tradition of Louis Armstrong. I don’t want to act like I know more than the public. I still believe in the Louis Armstrong philosophy, where there’s melody and harmony and just the right tempo. I’m a strong believer in entertaining the audience. I’m a jazz-pop singer, but I really like to make people walk out feeling good.
Quote:Who came up with “Joe Bari,” your original stage name?
I did. Bari is in the heel of the boot (of Italy) and Calabria is in the toe. My parents are from Calabria.
Rosy Clooney and I won this amateur contest, and then Pearl Bailey gave me a job down in Greenwich Village in her revue. Bob Hope was at the Paramount Theater with Jane Russell and Les Brown’s band. He came down to see Pearl Bailey and he got a big kick out of me because I was the only white kid in the show.
He said, “What’s your name?” I said, “Joe Bari.”
He said, “That’s a city in Italy. That’s a phony name. What’s your real name?”
I said, “Anthony Dominick Benedetto.”
He said, “Well, that’s a little long for the marquee. Let’s economize it and call you Tony Bennett.”
So when I paint it’s still Benedetto. And when I perform it’s Bob Hope’s name, Tony Bennett.
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010...n_lou.html
