Win Tony Bennett In The Studio

As a singer and as a visual artist, Tony Bennett is one of the world's true living legends. With a career that spans sixty years and a fan base that spans all ages, Bennett recently turned eighty and marked the milestone with a year-long creative outburst.

This included a chart-topping CD of duets with a diverse array of fellow superstar performers, from Streisand and Bono to Stevie Wonder and the Dixie Chicks. He starred in an NBC television special directed by Chicago's Rob Marshall, and performed in one sold-out show after another around the world.

He won his fifteenth Grammy Award, and the USA's National Endowment for the Arts named him a Jazz Master. The Kennedy Center for the performing arts honoured him for his contributions to American culture, the United Nations named him this year's Humanitarian Award honouree, and the Smithsonian museum selected one of his paintings for its permanent collection.

"I'm still on that journey to communicate how beautiful life is," he says. "Life is a gift, and we should all cherish it."

Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art and Music is a celebration of Bennett's lifelong dedication to this passion for painting and singing.

Writer and journalist Robert Sullivan has got to know Bennett and has interviewed him over many years. In their warm and revealing narrative, we hear Bennett discussing the significant events of his life and career, his personal philosophy, and the influences that continue to infuse his creative process as an artist and singer.

He reflects on times he's shared with and lessons learned from the like of Frank Sinatra, Pearl Bailey, Bop Hope, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Martin Luther King Jr., Cary Grant, Everett Raymond Kinstler, David Hockney and even Elvis Costello and Allen Ginsberg.

Bennett takes the reader from his childhood living above the grocery store where his father worked to the magnificent apartment from which he now looks out over his beloved Central Park, receiving daily inspiration for his art.

Along the way he gives us a glimpse of his inner life, of his constant search for beauty and ways to reflect it back to the world, and of the joy he takes in being receptive to the timelessness of his audience while also remaining faithful to the core of his own talent. Today, Tony Bennett is at the height of his popularity, with fans who range from the heyday of the saloon-song era to the MTV generation and beyond.

Tony Bennett in the Studio is complete with an exclusive music CD entitled Pop ART Songs, which includes Tony's hand-picked selection of six of his personal favourite recordings.

The book is richly illustrated with more than two hundred reproductions of his artwork - most previously unpublished - as well as a number of rare items from his private collection of artefacts. Through his visual art, Bennett explores a wide range of subjects, from sketches of jazz musicians to rolling Italian landscapes and dynamic cityscapes to lyrical still lifes and insightful paintings of people he has met along the way.

Tony Bennett in the Studio is a personal and entertaining look at the man, and his passion for art and music. A detailed appendix includes a discography, art biography, and an awards and honours listing.

You can purchase Tony Bennett In The Studio, published by Sterling, for RRP £19.99 or online at Amazon for £12.99.

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