Bettin’ on Bennett

Friday, Dec. 21, 2001 | 4:11 a.m.

Tony Bennett's heart is so big that even if he left it in San Francisco, it would still touch the rest of the world.

Bennett, who performs Saturday through Dec. 31 at Paris Las Vegas, has been entertaining for more than 50 years. His signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," was recorded in 1962.

Bennett's latest album, "Playin' with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues," was released last month and is expected to strike gold by the end of the year. The CD includes duets with a dozen singers, including Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Ray Charles and Billy Joel.

Also a gifted painter, Bennett's watercolors sell for up to $35,000, and his oil paintings for up to $80,000.

Bennett was the driving force behind the Frank Sinatra School for the Arts, a special high school in New York for aspiring artists of all genre. The inaugural class of 250 started this fall at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y., where the school will meet until a $50 million campus under construction is completed in 2003.

In January the King Center in Atlanta will honor Bennett with a humanitarian award for his opposition to racism, which included joining Martin Luther King Jr. on his famous march to Selma, Ala., in 1965.

The 75-year-old entertainer recently discussed with the Sun some of the issues that are closest to his heart during a telephone interview from his 15th-floor apartment overlooking New York's Central Park.

Sun: You have received so much praise over the years. How do you stay grounded?

Tony Bennett: I paint a lot. It's a way to block things out, to keep me away from any involvement with people, away from accountants or lawyers or whatever. When I paint on a canvas, the canvas is just a blank page and I have to fill it up. I've been painting all day today. Believe me when I tell you that the afternoon just flew by. I might be painting for five hours, and it feels like five minutes because you haven't got time to think about anything else except making it work. There are so many different problems to making a good composition (on canvas), putting the right values in and all this and that. And it's a sanity thing for me. The phones are off the hook. I just paint. That's my foundation, it really is. It keeps me sane.

Sun: How do you keep from burning out?

TB: I'm interested in what I'm doing. (Late drummer) Buddy Rich came up with a touch of philosophy -- he said in show business they always say you're only as good as your last show. But he said that's not true. He said the last show is gone, it's the next show that's important -- you're only as good as your next show. I think that's pretty accurate. You can't rest on your accolades. It's nice to hear someone say, "I heard you in '62 ... and I'll never forget it," but it's the next show that counts. You've got to keep the standards up.

Sun: The terrorist attacks in New York seem to have affected every entertainer. What are your feelings about the tragedy?

TB: My own personal feeling is that every (nation and ethnicity) is represented in the United States. That's the part I love about America more than anything else. When terrorists bombed the World Trade Center on 9/11, it was one of the most tragic things that has ever happened to us.

I've performed in Malaysia, Beijing, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland -- all over the world. When I come back to New York City, all the people I met around the world, the same nationalities are right here. So the terrorists didn't bomb New York, they didn't bomb America, they bombed the whole world.

Sun: Did the attacks affect the content of your performances?

TB: Not really. But I have a song that hasn't been recorded yet. It's called "The City of Dreams," a magnificent song that someday, when the swelling goes down on this big, hit album I just did, I would like it to be my next album. It's a beautful anthem about New York.

Sun: In addition to honoring New York, you developed the idea for the high school for artists being built that bares the name of Frank Sinatra.

TB: Frank was my best friend. Many times he said to me that he would like to teach kids how to perform. He saw what was going on. The young performers -- (entertainment executives) just spit them out. It's not like it was years ago when they gave Rosemary Clooney and I enough time to grow, and maybe we might get lucky four or five years later. Now, if the first record doesn't make it, the group is finished. And even if they have a hit, if the second album doesn't make it, they're dropped like a hot potato.

It's cruel what they do to young performers today, and Sinatra thought there should be a school to train them properly. I took the idea and built on it. New York City donated $50 million to create the school.

Sun: You credit your son, Danny, with rescuing your career when he started managing it 20 years ago. Is that true?

TB: Absolutely. What happened was, he was a youthful guy intelligent enough to listen to his father. He loved business and he knew what I really wanted.

I'll tell you what he did for me, which is unbelievable. I'm able to sing whatever I want, paint whatever I want. He has given me what every artist in the world really wants, I don't care who they are or how distinguished they are. Almost every artist regrets that they can't have the freedom to just express themselves. Someone's always telling them what to do.

My son has worked it out in my contracts so that I can sing whatever I want, paint whatever I want. To show you how good that has been for me, the minute we started doing the contracts that way -- for the last 10 years I've won a Grammy every year. That's how good that is. The reason I'm saying that is not bragging, but imagine if all the artists had producers and managers like that. It's a freedom that you can't believe.

Sun: What is the legacy you want to leave your fans?

TB: We're such a young country that we don't realize what a great musical tradition we have. We are the kings of the entertainment world. Our golden age was in the '20, '30s and '40s, just as the French had their golden age at the turn of the century -- Manet and all the other great artists. To this day, no matter how modern art is, we still look at that golden age of art with respect.

In the United States, we had the golden age of music with Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and all the others. Their music never dies. The whole world knows their songs.

I honor those artists by continuing to sing their songs. That's the premise of what I do, and people seem to like it.