Bennett To Release 90th Birthday Album on Dec. 16

By DownBeat I Dec. 15, 2016

Tony Bennett may have celebrated his 90th birthday in August, but the festivities haven’t stopped. On Dec. 16, the DownBeat Hall of Fame vocalist will release Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 (RPM Records/Columbia Records), an audio companion to the forthcoming NBC prime-time special Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet To Come, which airs Dec. 20 at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.

The special was filmed in front of a live audience at Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 15 and features performances by Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Kevin Spacey and many others. Additionally, performances by Billy Joel and Elton John were taped at alternate locations and will appear in the broadcast and on the CD.

The CD also includes a 28-page booklet featuring appreciation essays contributed by President Bill Clinton, film director Martin Scorsese, actor/vocalist Harry Belafonte, composer Johnny Mandel, pianist Bill Charlap and portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler.

The album will be available in both standard and deluxe CD packages. Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Deluxe Edition, an Amazon exclusive, is a three-CD set that includes the standard CD as well as two additional discs featuring rare and previously unreleased studio and live performance tracks. The set also includes a 28-page booklet written by music journalist Will Friedwald that presents a comprehensive decade-by-decade account of Bennett’s life and career.

For more information, visit the Tony Bennett website. DB