Laurent Fourgo: Tony Bennett's Noble Pursuit

With Tony Bennett’s passing last month, Laurent Fourgo pays tribute to the jazz icon and his influence.

The city where Tony Bennett famously sang he left his heart is where I as a performer found mine.

For almost 20 years I, a native of Paris, have been performing American jazz standards all around the Bay Area. I often sing at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, just across the street from the Fairmont, where Bennett’s most famous song—was launched into the stratosphere more than 60 years ago.

Culture is America’s greatest export, and Bennett sold American jazz standards with sublime elegance.

It wasn’t Bennett’s voice that made him legendary. Tony Bennett became iconic because he knew that singing at its best isn’t just entertaining. It is connecting. The singer connecting with the audience. But also the audience connecting to their own feelings —and to each other. He had a magical way of expressing some of our deepest human longings through words and music.

One recent evening, I was approached after my show by a man from the audience. He said that he and the love of his life had broken apart.
He had persuaded her to come hear my music, which is to say, Tony’s repertoire. He told me that he and his sweetheart had fallen back in love under the spell of the songs. That’s just what the composers and lyricists and performers want. At our best we make music for love. And that’s why one observer rightly called Bennett’s career “a noble pursuit.”

With a Perspective, I’m Laurent Fourgo.

Laurent Fourgo is a Bay Area vocalist and band leader living in San Francisco.