From the Archives: Tony Bennett discussed love of Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby with the U-T

Singer ony Bennett, who died Friday at the age of 96, performed frequently in San Diego over the decades. In this 1997 interview with San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga before a concert at the Del Mar Fair’s Grandstand Stage, Bennett expressed his devotion to the great American songbook. Tony Bennett on Billie, Miles and Bing: All have had their influence on this American icon “I’m not a jazz singer,” declared Tony Bennett, who prefers to think of himself as an interpreter of “the great American songbook.” But the...