Hyperbole becomes Tony Bennett. His effusiveness is all-encompassing, gathering his audience, his musicians, the people who wrote the songs he sings, and even the singers who covered those songs before him into a warm, gushing embrace. Performing more than 90 minutes' worth of material at Suntory Hall March 19, the 73-year-old singing waiter from Astoria, Queens, dressed in a shiny royal blue suit and powder-blue tie, didn't always know which direction he should face. The audience was all around him, and he kept turning this way and that, nodding to sections and pointing at individuals, bowing or opening his arms after every phrase.
It's a given that saloon singers are slick and insincere. Frank Sinatra's pseudo-egghead stage banter was always laced with a drop of acid; and when he was in his cups (which was most of the time) he could be downright sarcastic.
But Bennett is sincere. A person who didn't mean what he said wouldn't come up with such odd off-the-cuff remarks. After drummer Clayton Cameron performed a riveting solo, Bennett told the audience that Yogi Berra once saw him and his band on TV and later told him he thought Clayton was "the best drummer since Gene Krupa." The mostly middle-aged audience may have known that Berra used to be the catcher for the New York Yankees, but I for one wasn't aware he was also an expert on jazz drumming.