Concert review: Tony Bennett, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

WHEN Tony Bennett crooned out the lyrics to I’m Old Fashioned there was a cheerful note of self-awareness in his voice.

WHEN Tony Bennett crooned out the lyrics to I’m Old Fashioned there was a cheerful note of self-awareness in his voice.

At the age of 85 and looking fit and strong for it, he’s an anachronism, a surviving remnant of a style that’s long since faded. All he has left is a powerful and resonant voice, and a depth of quality in his performance that’s so honed by years of practice it seems almost off the cuff. These would be much more than enough for a performer of any age.

Dressed in a dapper black suit and surrounded by a quartet of slick jazz musicians, Bennett was on and off stage early, doubtless in deference to his elder years. Yet over the 90 minutes, he delivered a sublime procession of standards, more obscure covers and songs which he’s made resolutely his own. There was an upbeat I Got Rhythm fused with a wailing guitar riff on Loch Lomond, a mournful take on Hank Williams’ Cold Cold Heart and a duet with Bennett’s daughter Antonia – not a patch on her father, but a poignant choice of partner – on Sondheim’s Old Friend.

His repertoire was striking, from a tender take on Billie Holliday’s But Beautiful to the adoringly received high-hat rustle of The Boulevard of Broken Dreams and the yearning contentment of The Good Life. Stevie Wonder’s For Once in My Life was delivered as a fast swing, George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930s-vintage Who Cares? as a cannily subdued piece of social comment, and a bravura, unamplified Fly Me to the Moon as testament to a voice which rings with the evidence of a life lived well.

Rating: ****