The first time I had the opportunity to work with the late Tony Bennett was when I was booked to play percussion for him at the Imperial Room in the Royal York Hotel, Toronto sometime around 1974. I would have been about 22 years old.
At the time Mr. Bennett’s pianist/musical director was Torrie Zito, a great musician and a wonderful guy. I had met Torrie a year earlier when I did some music copying for him for a Toronto- based recording project.
The routine at the Imperial Room was a few hours of rehearsal on the Monday afternoon, with the first show that same night, and shows every night for the rest of the week.
I was booked to play timpani, bells, the typical assortment of small percussion instruments, and vibraphone.
About the fourth song into the show my part started with a bunch of bars rest, so I sat down in the chair I had set up on stage. The chair happened to be right beside Torrie Zito’s piano bench.
Working with Tony Bennett was something that I could never have imagined happening, and I sat there in the chair staring at him singing in the spotlight, wanting to imprint that image in my mind forever.
At some point Torrie nudged me with his elbow and asked, “Are you having a good time?”. I was shocked. Tony Bennett was singing just a few metres away and I didn’t think we should be talking. I just nodded. Seconds later Torrie nudged me again and asked, “Do you like this chart?”. This time I whispered, “Yes, it’s great”. He smiled at me and said, “It’s even better with the vibe part”.
I had been so mesmerized by Tony Bennett, and the idea that I was on stage playing with him, that I’d completely forgotten about counting the bars rest.
I jumped up and scrambled behind the vibes just in time to play the last couple of bars of the chart.
On the break I apologized to Torrie. He just laughed. He told me that when he didn’t hear the vibe part, and saw me sitting there grinning and staring at Tony, he knew exactly what was going on.
The rest of that week I stayed diligently standing behind whichever instrument I was supposed to be playing, studiously counting bars.