Originally posted by keysvocalssax:
My favorite singer Tony Bennett came to Lincoln Rd Mall on Miami Beach in 1998 to sign copies of his autobiography, "The Good Life". The owner of the bookstore hired me
to play sax/sing w/Brian Murphy on keys. We were
outside to the right of the entry door and TB
was right next to us at a table on the left side of the door. We tried to
get him to sing with us but he was just there
to sign books. He kept giving us the thumbs up
sign all night and he was obviously very into
our groove. At th end of the night he called
me into the back of the store to tell me how much he dug us...and handed me a copy of his
book. inside the front cover he wrote: "Mo,
you are wonderful, right in the pocket". A week later I got a call to sub for Bill Easley who was Jimmy Smith's sax player at the time, to do the Clearwater Jazz Festival
with Jimmy, Phil Upchurch, and Frank (sorry, forgot his name) on drums. I was scheduled
to be at the Fest w/Johnny Conga's Latin Jazz
Allstars, so I got to be featured twice! I guess it's all been downhill since september 1998--what a month! In 1992 TB came back to
Miami Beach to play th Gleason Theater, and
we went to see him for his 75th b-day concert. he was just unbelievable. goosebump time- he sang one tune a cappella and his voice was so powerful it blew everyone away. to see him
again recently on TV for his 80th birthday
special was a blessing. and what is even more
fiting is that he remains one of the nicest people that ever lived..everyone loves him.
Shouldn't post twice on this type of thread, but......couldn't agree more, Mo. Although not my favorite blues singer (BB King), jazz singer (Joe Williams), stylist (Shirley Horn), rock singer (Joe Cocker), soul singer (Ray Charles,Janis Joplin,James Brown.....now that they're all together, I hope Janis and one of the others has an offspring and sends him down to earth), pop singer (can't really think of anyone I like), he IS my favorite all-around singer and if I had to listen to just one singer for the rest of my life, it would probably be Tony Bennett.
chas
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