I met Tony backstage at the Grammy awards in 1992, but he already seemed omnipresent to me. Everybody knew Tony Bennett. He asked me to perform on his MTV Unplugged album in 1994 and the sparks started flying when we sang together. I felt elevated, comfortable and just in sync with him when we were doing Moonglow – as if I was with a teacher but also a friend. It was like an opening. It just felt right.
I always got the sense that Tony’s dedication to cultivating young artists to the Great American Songbook was driven by a desire to teach and develop the understanding of good songwriting and the symbiotic relationship between the singer and the song. I think he wanted young singers to experience the American Songbook and to set a standard in them, intuitively, about being a singer. I was a big fan of Peggy Lee and Carmen McRae so I was not a stranger to this music. But being embraced by someone who helped define it, in the way I was with Tony, gives you a deeper, more resonant understanding.
