An eloquent and heartfelt interview with Tony Bennett's pianist of 30 years. Mr. Bennett passed away earlier today at the age of 96. We'll all miss him.
First caught Bill Charlap playing in his mother's apartment in 1981. I knew he would be a force in Jazz then. He went to Performing Arts HS with my friend Michael Sabbarese. In the summer of 82' the Greenwich Village Jazz Festival had Tito Puente and his nine piece band open for Dizzy Gillespie and his 17 piece orchestra in Washington Square Park. Bill Charlap was in the audience, and we said hello. He was there with a kid from his school who played the trombone. Dizzy had in the trombone section Wayne Andre, Curtis Fuller from Detroit, Jimmy Knepper, and JJ Johnson. Bill Watrous was supposed to be there but called in sick. The greatest of the greats. Forty years later and I blinked.
Bill is a 1000% correct on everything he says about Tony, but especially that he cared to make his performances as perfect as he could. When Tony was a headliner at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel in the late 70s, I was the associate director of publicity. I made sure to be there for every performance of Tony's . . . I was the proverbial biggest fan (I was 26 at the time). I used to sit in the sound booth at the back of the Congo Showroom every night with the soundman Steve. One night, after the midnight show Steve gets a call through the intercom phone: "Tony wants to talk with you." Uh Oh we thought. But you know what, Tony wanted to discuss how to make the microphone work better and clearer, and he talked about that for about 15 minutes, then he ended with: "So the audience can really hear me." He wasn't being proud about his voice, or being a "star" he really cared that the audience got what they expected and what they came for. I was so impressed by Tony's conscientious attitude! He really was something special. Great loss, but at least we can hear him in recordings and see him in videos.
