Music is like poetry, and notes are like brush strokes. If you sing something plainly without intonation, without changing the beginning and end of how a word sounds, it’s not poetry. You can say something plainly but if you sing it, it can affect the soul of individuals. In a nutshell, this is how Tony Bennett and one of his instructors would discuss the construction of music and visual art. For Bennett, true art—all art—is about connection, collaboration.
Jazz master, standards veteran, a boss of show tunes, and commander of any other genre his voice has touched—Bennett has been drawing and painting just as long as he’s been singing. Now, he gives a viewinto his life, travels, his native New York City, friends, colleagues, and even a self-portrait (donned in an iconic tracksuit) captured through his personal artwork, on exhibit at New York’s Art Students League (ASL) …
Tina Eves 