Tony Bennett keeps up live appearances, new CD due

Legendary New York-born crooner Tony Bennett is set to issue a new CD titled "The Art of Romance" on Nov. 9, and is already plotting his concert plans into 2005.

Bennett's performances in the coming months include four New York City shows at Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home in the $128 million Time Warner Center, as well as several multi-night 2005 stands at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas. Details are in the itinerary below.

"The Art of Romance" was recorded live at BergenPAC in Englewood, NJ, by Bennett and his touring quartet, who were backed by a 60-piece orchestra. The performance was piped via fiber-optic cables to Bennett's adjacent recording studio.

Bennett, in a statement, said of the recording process: "The first day, as I walked on stage and was surrounded by all these wonderful musicians, was a great moment--it was like falling in love at first sight, and that emotion just carried through until we finished making the album."

Producer Phil Ramone, also in a statement, said, "Tony Bennett is a master of nuance and tone and the songs that he embraced for this project display those aspects of his musical gifts brilliantly. This is an album that communicates with those in love, out of love and everywhere in-between."

Though Bennett's musical career dates back more than a half-century, "The Art of Romance" features his debut as a lyricist, on the track "All For You." According to a press release, the song began as the instrumental jazz standard "Nuage," and Bennett added words to the melody.

"I sat down with a piece of paper and the words just flowed out," Bennett said. "It was a great experience to be on that side of the musical process."