Bennett's 'heart' still goes on

Tony Bennett WHEN: 8 tonight and 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook at Green Bay, Highland Park

TICKETS: Pavilion, sold out; tonight only, lawn, $10

CALL: (847) 266-5100

August, 1962. President John F. Kennedy is in the White House.Little Eva leads the Top 10 with "The Loco-Motion." The Soviet Unionlaunches Sputnik 19. On TV, America "Sings Along With Mitch." AndTony Bennett picks up career momentum with what would become hissignature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

Written by two then-unknown songwriters, George Cory and DouglassCross, "San Francisco" still calls to Bennett, "high on a hill," asit does to many of his fans.

"People ask me constantly if I tire of singing it, but if you lovesomething, you could do it endlessly," said Bennett in a phoneinterview from his New York home. (He returns for his annual Raviniaengagement tonight and Friday.) "I've never sung it the same waytwice. There's a vitalness to it each night."

Back in 1962, the song's vitality inspired Bennett to take hisrepertoire in a new direction. In the '50s, Bennett had been saddledwith grandiose pop ballads produced by Mitch Miller, then head ofColumbia Records (who started following "the bouncing ball" in 1961),and arranged by Percy Faith, the Godfather of Easy Listening.

Bridging the gap between Broadway ballads and jazz standards,which Bennett had embraced in the late '50s, "San Francisco" pointedthe way to a happy medium. As critic Will Friedwald wrote in JazzSinging (1990), " 'San Francisco' makes a perfect example of how lowand high brows mingle in Bennett's music. It's a good, though hardlygreat tune, [with] words infused with as much warmth as Bennett canmuster--and that can be quite a lot."

"Ralph [Sharon] is the one who discovered that song for me," saidBennett, referring to his longtime music director and pianist. Andthis summer, for the first time in decades, Bennett has taken to theroad without his musical sidekick.

So now Bennett has outlasted Mitch Miller, the Soviet Union andhis muse, whose percussive style propelled his master's best discs,from "The Beat of My Heart" (1957) to "Playin' With My Friends:Bennett Sings the Blues" (2001). "He's closer than my brother--we'vebeen tied together for so many years," Bennett said wistfully.

Sharon retired because he had grown weary of "the rules of theroad," so to speak. "It was difficult to rehearse new material,because he lives on the West Coast and I'm on the East," Bennettsaid. "It was imperative to have someone right around the corner."

Now those duties have fallen to pianist Lee Muskier, who "has atouch of genius," according to Bennett. "We've already put four newsongs in the show."

But of course, there will always be a place for "San Francisco,"which, Friedwald notwithstanding, Bennett regards as part of thegreat American songbook. That term refers to the standards penned byArlen, Gershwin, Kern, Porter and newer names such as Johnny Mandeland Billy Joel (many of which appear on "The Essential Tony Bennett,"a two-disc set released in July).

"The great part of the traditional era was that they knew how towrite for a singer--their songs had lots of open sounds," Bennettsaid. "They really studied Shakespeare and Shaw, and they worked hardat being great craftsmen."

Bennett paused for a moment and then added, laughing, "I'm a bigname dropper. I really believe in the star system--the ones whoreally contributed to the American songbook. People everywhere knowthose songs--they're not old, just great."

Not old, just great--that axiom applies to Bennett himself. Heturned 76 on Aug. 3, and shows no signs of slowing down. This summeralone, he went to London to visit the queen, singing at the RoyalJubilee in June ("I got a private walk through the palace, I likedseeing the masterpieces of art there") and spent July in Tuscany,painting while vacationing in the Italian countryside (he's anaccomplished visual artist as well).

Though he travels the world, his heart remains not in the city bythe bay, but in the Big Apple.

"New York City is the greatest place," Bennett said. "There's morefor everything here. Duke [Ellington], who never really livedanywhere, used to call it his mailing address. It's a magnificentcity."

And even more so after the shock of Sept. 11. "I love it here,"Bennett said. "No one's going to chase me out of here."

The impact of Sept. 11 didn't fully register with Bennett "until Iwent to London to sing at the same time they had those big memorialsfor 9/11 [throughout Europe last fall]. For the first time, Americancitizens got a full shot of what Europe went through in years past.The shock of Sept. 11 really hit me for the first time."

Despite the horrors of the last year, Bennett will never feel"terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan," to recall once again thelyrics of "San Francisco."

"I travel everywhere, I like the bigger cities," he said. "Thecultural level is better. And in Chicago, there's something so greatabout your city, it's so energized. Like your Art Institute--I alwayswalk out 12 inches taller after visiting there."

He reserves the same affection for Ravinia, the verdant paradiseof the North Shore, where music lovers commingle with the greatoutdoors. "I love it there. You can feel the audiences when youperform."

Then quoting fellow artist David Hockney, Bennett adds, "Andnature never tells you down."