The Talented Mr. Bennett

Tony Bennett. PHOTO from Ovation Productions

MANILA, Philippines — He came, he crooned, he conquered.

The talented Mr. Tony Bennett, all 87 years of him, walked on stage smiling widely, chuckling, in fact, and with a spring in his gait, thanked his daughter Antonia who opened for him, slapped his thigh to the upbeat intro and launched into “Watch What Happens.”

He never let up. Over 20 songs, an extended encore and three curtain calls later, he still had the Philippine International Convention Center Plenary Hall roaring with applause, spontaneous hollers of “Bravo!” and intermittent declarations of love (from what sounded like male voices).

Bennett served the perfect recipe Tuesday night for his well-heeled audience: beloved ditties on a jazzed-up plate and rendered by a band aflame beneath its cool-suit packaging. The singer himself, preceded by a distinguished reputation everywhere he went, was craftsmanship personified.

But it seemed he sang—mostly in that trademark velvety voice that could churn out gravelly growls, too— only to tell the most fascinating and nostalgic stories.

His audience knew every single tale— of the girl with moonlight in her eyes, the boulevard of broken dreams, the heart left behind in San Francisco, and oh, that old black magic— and certainly loved hearing them again.

In the end they would not let him go. But Mr. Bennett couldn’t stay; he still had the whole world to sing to.

(Read the full review in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday.)