Tony Bennett, last of classic American crooners, dead at 96
 

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In recent years, even as his velvety voice found purchase with a new generation, he privately faced a cognitive disorder. On Feb. 1, 2021, his family said in AARP magazine that Bennett had Alzheimer’s for the previous five years — even though he still managed to record more music.

“Life is a gift — even with Alzheimer’s,” Bennett’s official account tweeted at the time.

And what a gift it was: The life and career of Bennett, a World War II veteran and a civil rights activist, could provide fodder for a number of biopics, but his most enduring legacy is likely to be his unique vocal style, which made him a superstar in the 1950s and helped him enjoy a remarkable second act over the last 25 years of his life.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news...daeded13&ei=19

A good interview off NPR of him.


https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-a...1-tony-bennett

Thanks Barnie.

"A lifelong liberal Democrat, Mr. Bennett participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965, and, along with Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. and others, performed at the Stars for Freedom rally on the City of St. Jude campus on the outskirts of Montgomery on March 24, the night before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the address that came to be known as the “How Long? Not Long” speech. At the conclusion of the march, Viola Liuzzo, a volunteer from Michigan, drove Mr. Bennett to the airport; she was murdered later that day by members of the Ku Klux Klan."