Bennett gets his due -- and maybe more

Simply stick around long enough, and you'll be acknowledged an "American Master."

Not to sound harsh, but that seems to be the message behind the PBS Tony Bennett profile "The Music Never Ends," airing as part of the series "American Masters" at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WTTW Channel 11.

The 90-minute special, produced by jazz aficionado Clint Eastwood, seems to grant right away that Bennett wasn't the equal of a Frank Sinatra. As a stylist, neither was he as effortless as a Bing Crosby. I'd insist that, as a jazz singer, he wasn't as good as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn or even Nancy Wilson.

But there's no denying he had a big voice and a warm delivery, and "The Music Never Ends" places an emphasis on Bennett being a nice guy who eventually got his due -- and maybe even a bit more than his due.

Bennett was a child of the Great Depression whose father died when he was 10. His mother worked in a sweatshop to sustain the family. He served in World War II, and got himself disciplined by a racist commanding officer for fraternizing with black soldiers. He landed on his feet, as that eventually got him a job as the music librarian for an Army orchestra.

After the war, that led right into a musical career as a singer, and he worked his way up, with his name shortened and Americanized by none other than Bob Hope. Yet it wasn't until the early '60s and his groundbreaking concert at Carnegie Hall that he really established himself as a top talent. He had a bit of a dry patch in the late '70s, but that was true of a lot of singers and other musicians in the disco era.

Putting his son in charge of his career, he enjoyed a revival that continues to this day -- although I have to insist, again, that the last few times I've seen him on TV his voice has seemed shot, even as the entertainer soldiers on.

The question I ask is, does that qualify him as one of the bona fide "American Masters?" Wednesday's documentary first makes a case for Bennett being a nice guy as someone on the right side early on in the civil-rights movement.

"He never, ever turned us down," says Harry Belafonte, and one of the most disarming clips director Bruce Ricker has unearthed finds Bennett and Belafonte rubbing noses backstage.

Fine, but musicians had a more open attitude toward integration long before the general public did. After all, even Sinatra had his Sammy Davis Jr., and nobody ever got away with calling him a "nice guy."

But is this particular nice guy also an essential artist? "The Music Never Ends" has a more difficult time with that.

Bennett was influenced by Louis Armstrong's sense of swing as a singer, as well as Crosby's smooth crooning. But whom did Bennett influence? He was no Sinatra and no Elvis Presley, for that matter.

Co-written by music critic Nick Tosches, the documentary struggles with the notion of what makes Bennett unique. It seems to arrive at a position that he mixed things in a way no one else did, to arrive at a style no one else quite had.

Although Bennett loved jazz, his singing also bore touches of Italian bel canto opera. He could swing with the standards, but he could also put across a message, even a story. He drew from Judy Garland a willingness to take risks, especially toward the end of a song, to punch up the drama. His best performances -- "Rags to Riches," "Just in Time," "Blue Velvet" and, of course, his signature "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" -- all give him room to let loose with that big voice, even as he approaches them with his own sense of pace and rhythm.

The thing about Bennett -- and it's what distinguishes him to this day -- is there's an unmistakable sense of joy to his singing. Unlike Sinatra, he doesn't go in for dark moods and loneliness. Unlike Holiday, he wouldn't give vent to something as simplistically strident as "Strange Fruit." As a singer, he's a people person, a pleasant and pleasing entertainer, most identifiably in something like "Sing You Sinners."

But is that enough to establish Bennett as a great artist, someone deserving the title of "American Master?" Evidently so. And if it would take a real crank to argue the point, well, that's sometimes the role of Your Friendly Neighborhood TV Critic.

In the air

Remotely interesting: The new reality series "Decision House" debuts at 7 p.m. Wednesday on WPWR Channel 50. The relationship show about couples struggling with their marriages was created and produced by Jay McGraw -- yes, son of Oprah's Dr. Phil.

Reruns of "The Office" move to TBS starting at 9 p.m. today. … The real-life dramatization "Pinochet's Last Stand" about the former Chilean dictator debuts at 8 p.m. today on HBO.

End of the dial: Classic-rock WDRV 97.1-FM moved into the top 10 in the most recent monthly Arbitrend ratings with a 3.4 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older.

All-talk WLS 890-AM dropped to 12th.

-- Ted Cox