Let Tony Bennett, 87, sing forever more

SINGAPORE - The longest lasting singer keeping the standards from the great American songbook alive today, Tony Bennett makes everything he does on stage seem so easy.

He turned 87 last month and, yes, the movements may be a little slow and measured, but his voice is still in splendid form.

It might sound a little rough around the edges, but the raspiness only served to give his voice more character. Every single vowel was articulated clearly and no melody was wasted.

And, yes, all the climactic, rousing endings in songs such as Fred Astaire/Frank Sinatra's One For My Baby (and One More For The Road) and For Once In My Life were belted out effortlessly. His delivery was greeted by several standing ovations during the concert.

Dressed in a cream jacket and dark trousers, he danced slowly to the music and even teased the audience with a couple of 360-degree twirls.

His daughter Antonia opened the show with a 20-minute set that comprised standards such as Noel Coward's Sail Away and George Gershwin's Embraceable You.

She is her father's daughter - her delivery was ultra smooth and she carried each melody with ease.

Bennett's youngest daughter would later come back on stage to do a duet with him on Old Friends.

The elder crooner came on almost immediately after Antonia's opening set, after a recorded introduction from the late Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, proclaiming Bennett as "the greatest singer in the world".

A true gentleman on stage, he was all smiles and looked very relaxed throughout his 80-minute, non-stop set.

"You can tell by now that I only sing old songs," he joked halfway through his set, before introducing George Gershwin's Who Cares as an example of a tune from a master composer written in the 1930s that is still relevant today.

Throughout the set, he regaled the audience by recalling significant moments throughout his more than six decades in showbusiness.

Before he launched into Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, he introduced it as the first song he ever recorded, while prior to singing Charlie Chaplin's Smile, Bennett talked about how receiving a letter of praise from the iconic comedian was one of the highlights of his life.

Bennett has friends in the modern pop world too. He dedicated The Good Life to Lady Gaga, "a wonderful lady" with whom he is currently recording a jazz album.

"I want you to buy the record because I need the money," he joked to laughter from the mostly mature audience.

He even gave a shoutout to local jazz maestro Jeremy Monteiro, whom he thanked - twice - for taking him and Antonia out to dinner the night before.

Bennett's backing jazz quartet were minimal but outstanding. Drummer Harold Jones and bassist Marshall Wood were a formidable and tight rhythm unit, while guitar player Gray Sargent and pianist Lee Musiker were both outstanding. A singer of Bennett's stature deserved no less.

His closing tune demonstrated amply the lungs that have stayed strong throughout decades worth of singing. He put his microphone aside and sang popular standard Fly Me To The Moon out loud.

While the volume of his voice might have been a little soft in the large venue, his delivery was certainly spirited.

As the lyrics went in his final song for the night - "Fill my heart with song/Let me sing forever more", the two lines sum up his impact on stage that night.

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