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Tony Bennet’s Daughter Antonia Debuts Next Week

08/13/2010
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Tony Bennet’s daughter Antonia is following in her dad’s footsteps into the Music Biz. Her debut album, Natural, will be released by Mesa/Bluemoon next Tuesday, August 17. She’ll be joining her father on tour this fall.

The 6-song EP introduces Bennett as a gifted interpreter of jazz classics with an impeccable and accessible vocal style. Like her legendary father Tony Bennett, Antonia embraces the warm, timeless sound of the standards and also like her dad did she brings a modern, nuanced style which appeals to the new jazz audience. Natural includes “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Love is a Battlefield,” “Soon,” “Putting on the Ritz,” and “The Thrill is Gone.” The EP was produced by the award-winning songwriter, Holly Knight (“Love is a Battlefield,” “Ragdoll,” and “Simply the Best”) and features arrangements by Grammy®- nominated pianist/arranger Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Al Jarreau, Norah Jones, John Mayer, David Sanborn).

Using the American Songbook as her foundation, Antonia explains, “I take each of the songs that I do as a story, with a beginning, middle and end – like a monologue – and I try to do my best to tell that story,” says Antonia. “I grew up listening to the American Songbook, and a variety of artists singing those songs. Singing these songs is like a home-cooked meal, like comfort food, something that is a part of me. The way I grew up, if you were going to take a song that was done by many of the great artists, you should bring a piece of yourself into it.
Interpretation is an art form.” She goes on to say, “We wanted to find wonderful standards that haven’t been overdone. In fact, none of these have been in my show repertoire. I used to sing “Putting on the Ritz” when I was a little kid on stage with my Dad. I grew up singing it and love it. And if you’ve ever seen Young Frankenstein, you gotta love it!”

A Berklee-trained musician, Antonia also had formal dance and acting training at the Strasburg Institute. With these skills and taking a page from her father’s book, she understands what it takes to be a complete entertainer. She is a well-rounded, hard-working creative talent who brings insightful presence to both the recording and the stage. Her ethereal beauty and elegant demeanor, coupled with her transcending vocal quality, makes her an in-demand talent in her own right.

Live performance has been part of Antonia’s life since the age of four, serenading audiences internationally in opera houses, casinos, jazz clubs and amphitheaters. She’s even performed with the legendary Count Basie, and for luminaries such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Rosemary Clooney, Les Paul and Ella Fitzgerald. Opening for Tony Bennett on his 2010 tour, Antonia graced stages from London’s Royal Albert Hall and iTunes Festival UK to the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles. The tour continues throughout the year (dates below) as Antonia celebrates the release of Natural.

Natural will be available on all major digital distribution sites including iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Antonia Bennett: Like Father, Like Daughter
Singer, daughter of Tony Bennett, releases debut EP album
By Christopher Loudon

Liza Minnelli. Natalie Cole. Norah Jones. Now, Antonia Bennett can be added to the list of second-generation vocalists with the potential to rival an iconic parent’s pizzazz. The youngest of Tony Bennett’s four children, 36-year-old Antonia trained professionally as an actor at New York’s esteemed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Her singing career began much earlier, dating all the way back to age four with her first onstage performance alongside her dad and subsequently propelled by formal training at Berklee.

It is a billed as an album of “jazz standards,” which may come as a surprise to Holly Knight (Natural’s producer) and Mike Chapman, whose “Love Is A Battlefield” numbers among the six selections, and to country tunesmiths Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard, whose “I Fall to Pieces” is also covered. But labels are immaterial. It is the performances, and the interpretations, that matter, and Bennett scores immensely high on both counts.

There is little vocal resemblance between Tony and Antonia. Her sound suggests the creaminess of Jane Monheit cut with a 90-proof jigger or two of Nellie McKay. Father and daughter do, however, share a precious skill: profound emotional subtlety. Like Tony, she favors languorous settings — smooth as satin, soft as eiderdown and still as a moonlit pond. A less proficient singer would, in such circumstances, easily stray toward torpidity. But Bennett avoids that trap by following in dad’s deep-rutted footsteps and making tremendously clever interpretative choices. On the Gershwin’s “Soon,” too often intensely emoted, she simply lays back and luxuriates in the sweet promise of romantic fulfillment. “Puttin’ On the Ritz” is lent a Dietrich-esque smolder that slowly extracts every ounce of sauciness. Her “The Thrill Is Gone” aches with nicely chilled desolation. Rodgers and Hart’s “I Wish I Were In Love Again” has always been difficult to nail correctly. It demands playfulness with just enough bite to suggest plenty of streetwise experience. Bennett gets it just right.

“I Fall to Pieces” is, however, the EP’s most intriguing, and stunning, track. The trick is so obvious that it is remarkable more interpreters haven’t solved it. Where most singers pile emotion high on the four words that shape the title, Bennett (supported by shrewd Goldings cascades) lets those words crumble as they should, reserving the unleashed heartache for the killer line that truly drives home the romantic devastation: “You tell me to find someone else to love.” Even Patsy Cline would surely applaud such astute lyrical elucidation. Bennett closes with “Love Is A Battlefield,” ably demonstrating that Pat Benatar’s power-rock battle of the sexes loses none of its intensity when interpreted as a coolly intellectualized ballad.

Six tracks are, of course, too brief an introduction for proper assessment of Bennett’s future prospects. So consider Natural less a promise than an opening salvo, but appreciate that the quiet roar of its thunder could well ignite a storm of talent on the scale of Liza, or Natalie or Norah.

Antonia is putting the finishing touches on her debut pop rock album of original songs, produced by Holly Knight. Click ‘here‘ to go to her pop page and listen to some teasers of what’s in store… stay tuned for updates. Look for a 2011 release …please feel free to sign the guestbook and leave any comments or thoughts you might have.

ANTONIA BENNETT TO RELEASE DEBUT RECORD, NATURAL, ON MESA/BLUEMOON

EP of Jazz Standards Continues the Family Musical Legacy

August 5, 2010
The debut record from Antonia Bennett, Natural, will be released by Mesa/Bluemoon on Tuesday, August 17.  The 6-song EP introduces Bennett as a gifted interpreter of jazz classics with an impeccable and accessible vocal style.

“…[Antonia] conjures echoes of Billie Holliday and Rickie Lee Jones, with a hint of Betty Boop.”
The New York Times

Like her legendary father Tony Bennett, Antonia embraces the warm, timeless sound of the standards and also like her dad did she brings a modern, nuanced style which appeals to the new jazz audience.  Natural includes “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Love is a Battlefield,”  “Soon,” “Putting on the Ritz,” and “The Thrill is Gone.” The EP was produced by the award-winning songwriter, Holly Knight (“Love is a Battlefield,” “Ragdoll,” and “Simply the Best”) and features arrangements by Grammy®- nominated pianist/arranger Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Al Jarreau, Norah Jones, John Mayer, David Sanborn).
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The new website of Antonia Bennet launches!