Celebrating Tony Bennett on what would have been his 100th birthday

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli. Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who got his start busking on the streets of Dublin and later became famous for playing a Dublin street musician in the Irish film "Once," died Wednesday from a motorcycle crash. He was 56. Irish president Catherine Connolly said Hansard would be remembered as one of Ireland's great singer-songwriters. Bruce Springsteen, who invited Hansard in 2013 to join him on stage during a show in Kilkenny, said, here on E Street, we are heartbroken. We met in Ireland many years ago, and he was nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man.

Glen Hansard formed the rock band The Frames in the 1990s, made his film debut in "The Commitments," playing guitarist Outspan Foster, and won an Oscar for cowriting the song "Falling Slowly" for the film "Once," in which he starred as a struggling musician. The movie was later adapted into a Tony Award-winning music. Hansard went on to release a number of albums as a solo artist, and he was an advocate for the homeless, performing at an annual Dublin Christmas Eve busk to raise money for people at risk of homelessness.

The low-budget Indie Irish film that became an international success, titled "Once," was written and directed by John Carney, who previously had been in Hansard's band, The Frames. Hansard wrote the music for the movie. In 2008, Terry Gross spoke with Glen Hansard and with Czech singer Marketa Irglova, who co-starred in the film. Let's begin with the Oscar-winning song "Falling Slowly," which they co-wrote.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FALLING SLOWLY")

GLEN HANSARD: (Singing) I don't know you, but I want you all the more for that.

GLEN HANSARD AND MARKETA IRGLOVA: (Singing) Words fall through me and always fool me, and I can't react.

HANSARD: (Singing) And games that never amount to more than they're meant will play themselves out.

HANSARD AND IRGLOVA: (Singing) Take this sinking boat and point it home. We've still got time. Raise your hopeful voice. You have a choice. You'll make it now. Falling slowly...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

TERRY GROSS: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, welcome to FRESH AIR. Congratulations on the Oscar and all the success you've had with "Once." You co-wrote "Falling Slowly." Had you ever written a song together before writing for the film?

HANSARD: No. That was actually the first song we wrote together, and it was one of those things where I'd been working on the song and I wasn't really sure where I was going with it. All I had was, you know, it was the verse and I had an idea for the chorus. And it was only when I sat down with Mar and I played her the idea - 'cause I was talking about a harmony in the chorus and she said, what if you take the lower one and I - or you take the higher one and I'll take the lower one, and you know, on the moment where it goes (singing) we've still got time.

And it was - for me, that was like the key of what made the song suddenly work, and then so I wrote the chorus with Mar, and then I really felt like we had a solid song in our hands and it was something I could give to John and feel confident with.

GROSS: Glen, you pointed out that the movie was not written with you in mind as the performer, or with Marketa in mind. Cillian Murphy was supposed to be the star of the film, but he had to back out at the last minute, so I guess that's how you ended up being cast yourself.

HANSARD: Yeah. I mean, what happened was that Cillian was involved in the project all along and Cillian liked The Frames and so he was happy to sing my songs, but I think some of the songs I turned in, I think Cillian probably felt a little bit - Cillian's a great singer but I think he felt a bit unprepared for some of the - 'cause John - the songs that John chose were some of the more dynamically - like vocally challenging songs 'cause I just gave John a bunch of songs, and he chose which ones he liked and which ones he didn't, and I think Cillian got a little bit sensitive about maybe possibly about the idea of singing a few of these songs and being able to sort of do them justice. And I remember making the suggestion that - I was like, I'll change the keys, you know, I'll make it work, 'cause for me, you know, having the job of writing the songs, I just wanted to keep my gig. And so I was like, I'll change the keys, I'll do whatever Cillian needs in order to make these songs work.

And I think possibly what happened was that Cillian just got offered another job and then maybe took it. But once Cillian pulled out, John was left in a very - I guess he was kind of stranded because the producers pulled out once Cillian pulled out, and then suddenly, this project which was about to film in a month or two suddenly had no money.

And this is kind of where things got exciting for us because John had already cast Mar, Cillian had backed out on him, the producers had backed out on him, but he still had a crew booked and he still had a shoot date. And so he had to sort of figure out, do I drop this project and move on to another idea I had, or do I try to make this work somehow? And we all sat down together - because I was involved in the project as a songwriter, we all sat down together and we sort of - I guess we all tried to figure out what to do. And I got really excited about the idea of making the film as cheaply as possible, and it also meant that we could - you know, we figured out how to do it, so we wouldn't use lights. We'd shoot - instead of shoot - you know, there was talk of originally shooting the film on film. Let's shoot it on DV, and let's - instead of, you know, hiring the cameras, let's just buy two cameras. Let's just do it all handheld. Let's just bring our own clothes. Let's just do this - let's just do this thing super, super minimalist.

GROSS: And let's hire someone real cheap like Glen Hansard.

(LAUGHTER)

HANSARD: Yeah. Oh yeah, I forgot about that element. Yeah. And let's just get me to do it. Like, just get me mate to do it. And when John approached me to do it, I was kind of nervous, I must admit. I wasn't - I didn't really like the idea because I just didn't feel like I could pull it off, but then John kind of put to me - he said, look, no one's going to sing these songs like you do because you wrote them. He says, I'm forced into the choice of having, you know, two actors who can probably half sing or two musicians who can half act, and he says, I'd rather - if it's a musical film, I'd rather have two musicians who can half act. I know I'll get a performance out of you. And he says, as long as the music's convincing, I think people are going to believe it. So that was kind of his gamble.

GROSS: Let's hear another song that you co wrote together for "Once," and this is "If You Want Me." And Glen, why don't you describe how this song is used in the film?

HANSARD: Well, well, there was - John wanted to have one song in the film that was basically a throwback or a salute to the classic musical. We decided a couple of things in the beginning. We said, whenever there's a song in this film, let's have the entire song. And also, whenever there's a song in this film, let's have it be absolutely live in the moment. You're playing the song in front of them so that there isn't this whole idea of playback, and, you know, then you'd mime. So the idea was that Mar's character, the batteries would go in her CD player and that she would basically sing over music that I would have supposedly written. And it was going to be - you know, John wanted basically just to do a "Singin' In The Rain" moment where it was a real musical moment. And so we hired a crane and basically, we just walked up the street with Mar that whole evening, and I think it really does work in the film. But that is the one moment where we're miming.

MARKETA IRGLOVA: Yeah. But it's also the moment where you get to actually know something about the girl. Because I think through the songs that the male character plays, you get to know something about his personality, you know, something that you probably wouldn't get to know about a person in one and a half hour, and so you get that little chance with that song that the girl sings as well, which works very well, I think.

GROSS: And so let's hear it, "If You Want Me," and this will give us a chance to hear Marketa's voice. This is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the soundtrack of their film "Once."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF YOU WANT ME")

IRGLOVA: (Singing) Are you really here, or am I dreaming? I can't tell dreams from truth. For it's been so long since I have seen you, I can hardly remember your face anymore. When I get really lonely and the distance causes only silence, I think of you smiling with pride in your eyes. A lover that sighs.

HANSARD AND IRGLOVA: (Singing) If you want me, satisfy me. If you want me, satisfy me.

GROSS: That's "If You Want Me" from the soundtrack of the film "Once." My guests co-wrote the song and also starred in the film. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are my guests.

Since neither of you were really actors when you started making "Once" - although, Glen, you had a part in "The Commitments" as a member of the band - did you go seeking advice from people about how to act or how to behave in front of a camera? Did you just learn from doing it? And if you got advice, like, what's the best thing that you were each told that actually helped you?

HANSARD: Well, the thing that I was told - and I can't remember who told me right now - somebody said to me, just remember that Marlon Brando was always Marlon Brando. He wasn't - like, the reason people hired him to be in films was 'cause he was Marlon Brando. And, you know, I kind of like the idea that no matter what character you're playing, no matter whether you embody it or not - and there are many different styles of acting, of course, there are many different styles - but this was the thing that I always - that resonated with me most was the fact that - just be yourself and embody the character. And I think that for me that meant that, I guess, my range as an actor was probably quite limited.

And let's face it, I was pretty much playing myself in this film. You know, I am a street musician, I was a street musician. You know, I did - I fixed bicycles, not hoovers. John changed that detail, I guess. When I went to the bank to get my first loan for The Frames, the bank manager took out his guitar and played me a song. So there are many details in this guy's life that are very similar to my own. So I guess for myself, it wasn't so difficult to embody this guy. And I think if I was given a more challenging role I might find it a lot more difficult.

And as well, we were making this film - I was making this film with Mar, who was a good friend of mine and also with John Carney, who was in my band, who was a very close friend of mine. So I felt very, very comfortable with these people. It felt like a bunch of friends making a film over the weekend more than it felt like being involved in a big artistic challenge.

GROSS: I want to play a scene from the beginning of "Once," and this is a scene where Glen, you're playing on the street for money, but no one's paying any attention to you at all until Marketa, you walk over and start asking him questions about himself and the music. Here's the scene.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) That song you just played, you write it?

HANSARD: (As Guy) Working on it.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) It's not an established song?

HANSARD: (As Guy) No, it's not an established song.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) How come you don't play it during daytime? I see you every day.

HANSARD: (As Guy) You know, during the day people want to hear songs they know, just songs that they recognize. I mean, otherwise I wouldn't make any money. I play these songs at night. They wouldn't listen.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) I listen.

HANSARD: (As Guy) Yeah, but you gave me 10 cents.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) Will you do it for money then? Why don't you get a job in a shop?

HANSARD: (As Guy) I have a job in a shop. Listen, I'm going to get back to this, yeah? Nice to meet you.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) Who'd you write this song for, please?

HANSARD: (As Guy) No one.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) [Expletive]. Where is she?

HANSARD: (As Guy) She's gone.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) She's dead?

HANSARD: (As Guy) No, she's not dead. She's gone.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) You love her still?

HANSARD: (As Guy) Jesus, man.

IRGLOVA: (As Girl) You're over her? Rubbish. No one writes a song who's over her. I'm telling you. You play this marvelous song to her, you get her back.

HANSARD: (As Guy) I don't want her back.

BIANCULLI: That's a scene from the film "Once." After a break, we'll continue with Terry's 2008 interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, co-stars of the film "Once." This is FRESH AIR.

This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's 2008 interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, stars of the movie "Once." Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who formed the rock band The Frames and appeared in the film "The Commitments," died Wednesday at age 56.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

GROSS: Glen, you started off as a street musician when you were in your teens. You dropped out of high school to play on the streets. Where did you choose to play? Like, what was a good street for you in Dublin?

HANSARD: Well, for me Grafton Street was the - it was a bit like, in Dublin, if you can imagine, you know, the microcosm of your life, I suppose. For me, I lived on the north side of the city, so Grafton Street was on the south side of the city, and that for me made more sense because it meant that wouldn't bump into anybody from school and that I wouldn't bump into any of my mother's friends, or my mother indeed, 'cause my mother was a fruit seller on Moore Street, which was on the north side of the city. And I wanted to get as far away from anybody I knew as possible. So I went over to Grafton - and also, Grafton Street was kind of the more posh part of Dublin, so the chances of me having a career or having - getting beyond just being a street musician were - I had better chances, if you like, on the south side of the city, 'cause that's kind of where all the artists lived and, you know.

So I went over there and it was a great - for me it was the beginning of a whole new education. I mean, I left school at 13. I went over there - the day I left school I went busking and what started was - I met a man who sold magazines on the street. His name was Pete, and Pete was a - you know, he prided himself on the fact that he was a Dylanologist. You know, he loved Dylan, he loved everything about...

GROSS: (Laughter) Yeah.

HANSARD: And because I was such a Dylan fan, this guy took me seriously because I was playing Dylan songs that weren't necessarily the ones from the "Greatest Hits" record. And so this guy took an interest in me and I guess took me under his wing, and I remember going and living with him for a while, and he took me around to like poetry readings. And pretty much from there on - I remember meeting this lady, Phillipa Garner, who was kind of a famous painter in Ireland, and she took me up to her house in Kildare, which was in the countryside. She lived in an old converted schoolhouse that she had rebuilt, and I went and lived with her for two years, and really a whole new education began. I remember staying at Seamus Heaney's house when I was a kid. And getting to hang out with poets and other musicians was really the basis of my artistic beginnings.

GROSS: So what's the best thing that happened to you on the streets?

HANSARD: Well, for me, I guess, overall, it was my education. I learned how to sing on Grafton Street. I learned how to entertain. When you're on the street, you're a still point. You know, you're part of the architecture. You're a still - and if you stand still at any street in any city in any country of the world, if you stand still long enough, every single person in that city will pass you buy. So like, you know, I'd be busking, and Van Morrison would walk past as I was singing a Van Morrison song or, you know, Bono would go by or, you know, all ...

GROSS: Is that true? Really? They'd go by?

HANSARD: Oh, absolutely.

GROSS: OK. So Van Morrison is walking by. What do you do? Do you say, excuse me? No?

HANSARD: Not at all. No, with someone like Van, you would just give him his space and actually, ironically, the reason I guess he was passing by was because we were, myself and my friend, were busking together and we were singing Van, because Van songs are amazing to busk. So one day we were busking, playing one of his songs, and he passed by, but actually, the irony was that we were busking enough money to go see him that night so actually we ended up busking up enough money to go see him. Then the same thing happened for U2. We were busking up the money to go see them one time and we saw them the same day, which is very interesting.

GROSS: So, Glen, when you dropped out of school at the age of - what, 14? - so that you could perform on the streets, what did your parents think of that?

HANSARD: Well, I'm very lucky in that my mother - again, my mother was very, very liberal. She grew up in a very, very tight household where she had to be home at a certain time and had to - you know, she had 12 brothers and sisters, and I guess the family had to keep everybody - you know, herd them together, I guess, if you like. So my mother grew up in the '60s, you know. And so during that time, she wanted basically to give her kids the freedom that she never had. So my mother was like very, very liberal. She said to me, anytime you need, you know, if you want to - you know, when I came home and said to her, Ma, I really want to do music, my mother just said, Well, do it then. And she said, Well, do it, and if you're going to do it, do it properly so go, you know, go and earn a living from it and do it and get really involved in it.

So I was looking - and my dad - my dad was, you know, I guess my dad was one of those guys who was a - he worked hard but he was a hard-drinking man and didn't - and supported us in whatever we wanted to do but didn't really play much of a role in our lives except to say, yep. Fair play to you, son. Go for it. So me dad was, I guess, was on board with it, too.

I was very, very lucky. I mean, my headmaster in school, my head teacher, he was a great guy. I was in his office so many times, and we talked and talked, and I guess he was a smart guy. He figured out that music was the one subject I really enjoyed talking about. And because he was in his part - in his spare time he was a DJ and so myself and himself would talk about Dylan and Cohen and Neil Young and all the stuff that really impassioned me, and he basically said to me one day, he called me down to the office and he says, Glen you know what? You're in this school. You're not learning a thing. You're frustrating all of the teachers and I know you love music, so I have an idea. Why don't you go, take your guitar, go over to Grafton Street or go to any street you want, but start your musical career at the very bottom today. He said, you know, go and, you know, take your guitar out, and if in a year you're not enjoying it or it's not working out for you, come back to school and I'll figure out a way of getting you back into class, and you can continue your education.

HANSARD: He says, but I don't think that your education is going anywhere here. You know, he says, You can tell me all the musicians who played on "John Wesley Harding." Or you can, you know, you can tell me who produced the first two Leonard Cohen records, but you can't tell me the square root of nine. And he says, so you're not really very good to us here and I'd like to see you succeed. So he sent me home that day to take my guitar and go to the Grafton Street. And when I went home, I said to my mother - I dropped my school bag in the hall and I said to my mother, Ma, I'm going to start my career as a musician, and my mother was like, What? Really? And I was like, yeah. She says, well, go for it, son, and good luck.

BIANCULLI: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova speaking to Terry Gross in 2008. Glen Hansard died Wednesday in a motorcycle accident at age 56. We'll hear more after a break. Also, Kevin Whitehead has an appreciation of Tony Bennett. Monday marks the centenary of his birth. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MCCORMACK'S WALL")

HANSARD: (Singing) Well, I've not been honest, darlin'. No, I've not been straight at all. Well, I beg your pardon. The night we jumped McCormack's Wall. I was so happy just to be with you, I'd have said anything at all. Now, I could scream your name, try to pass the blame. But I know you won't respond. Well, here we are. What can we do? La din da. I'm gonna ride Black River. And with the lark in the morning and the dew upon the dawn, well, a-home…

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli. We're listening to Terry's 2008 interview with singer-songwriters Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. They co-starred in the 2007 Irish film called "Once," about two street musicians. Hansard wrote the music for it, and they both co-wrote the film's Oscar-winning song "Falling Slowly." Hansard and Irglova went on to perform off screen as the duo Swell Season and, for a time, were a couple. Hansard died Wednesday at the age of 56.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

GROSS: How did you both meet?

IRGLOVA: Me and Glen?

GROSS: Yeah.

IRGLOVA: Well, it was a case of my father helping a man that lived in Ireland get this Irish band over to Czech Republic and Slovakia for a few gigs, and he was the guy that would kind of help out on the Czech side because he obviously speaks Czech and English, so he'll be able to communicate and get venues to be helpful. And so he basically helped organize a few gigs that The Frames had around the area. And because he did do that, when the band came over, they just kind of came to our house, and we organized a party for them in our garden. And that was were we met, basically around the fire playing songs and singing along, and my mother cooked this big feast. So we met in a really lovely way, where Glen - my family would basically invite the whole bunch, which was about 12 people, over to the house and befriend Glen and the band. So then Glen would just keep coming to the house because of my mother's cooking and stuff, so it's a very funny way of us meeting. But throughout the years, we would have become friends.

GROSS: I want to ask you about another scene from "Once." There's a great scene in what I think is a pub. It almost looks like a living room, but I think it's actually, like, a small pub. And everybody's kind of eating dinner and drinking, and the rule of the game here is that you have to be able to sing to be in in this dinner and people just kind of alternate singing. And there's a kind of middle-aged woman and a middle-aged man, slightly older man, who sing a few bars in this sequence, and they have really interesting voices. And I was wondering, like, who are they, and is this based on a real pub in Dublin?

HANSARD: Well, actually, that room is where me and Mar live. That's our flat.

GROSS: Oh.

HANSARD: Yeah. And because we didn't have money to hire a venue, we decided to have a party in our flat.

GROSS: No wonder it looks like an apartment. OK.

HANSARD: Yeah. Because that's our place. That's where we live. And also, the guy, the guy I was telling you about earlier on, the guy, the first person I met, the Dylanologist in Grafton Street, that's Pete, and he's the guy who sings.

GROSS: Oh.

HANSARD: And then the woman who sings is my mother.

GROSS: No.

HANSARD: Yeah. That's my mother, Catherine, so - and again how we did it was instead of trying to hire a room and put lots of extras in it, we just threw a party and invited all our friends over and filmed it so like...

GROSS: I really liked her voice. You know, there was something vaguely Marianne Faithfull-ish about it.

HANSARD: Yeah. Interestingly, Marianne Faithfull...

GROSS: An older Marianne Faithfull.

HANSARD: Yeah. Interestingly, Marianne Faithfull used to live in that flat also, which might...

GROSS: No.

HANSARD: ...You might have somehow picked up on. Yeah. We're very lucky in that we live - one of the other people that I met when I was younger was Marina Guinness, who's part of the Guinness family in Ireland. And we're like, Ireland doesn't have royalty, but if we did have royalty, it would have to be with the Guinness family because they're such a strong and powerful family in Ireland, in a very nice way. And, of course, we all admire them because we drink their product constantly. It's an amazing thing so - but I'm really glad that you pointed out the guy and the woman, because the guy is the guy I was talking about who took me on board, and I spent a lot of time with him when I was younger. And, of course, my mother.

GROSS: Now we have to play that scene.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONCE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Great to see you here. Can you sing? If you can't sing, you're out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) There's one request I'll ask of you, when your liberty caved, remember Mitchell Falway. I come beat down in shame (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, singing) My, that once held this heart of mine (ph).

GROSS: That's a scene from once, which stars my guests, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Did your mother sing a lot when you were growing up?

HANSARD: Yeah. My mother sang constantly when we were kids. And my father. My mother used to win - like, she won a bunch of competitions when we were kids, you know, in pubs, and you know. They never - my mother of course never took singing as seriously as, say, I did but, you know, and my father. My grandfather was an opera singer and my grandfather sang - I remember, my great-grandfather sang in the same competition as James Joyce and beat him, apparently, in an...

GROSS: Gee.

HANSARD: ...Opera, yeah, competition, a long, long time ago. So music's definitely been in my family.

GROSS: So, wow, your lives have just been so changed by the movie. It's just - I mean, in every way. In terms of your performances, in terms of the fact that you're now a couple and you're living together. I'm sure you just never expected that.

HANSARD: Not at all. I mean it's been a very, very - serendipitous, I suppose. It's been a very, very interesting and powerful chapter in my life, for sure. And you know, yeah, exactly. It's like, does life imitate art? Does art imitate life? It's - for "Once," it definitely, the lines are definitely blurred, and I really like that about it.

GROSS: Since Dylan figures into your story here - Glen, particularly your story - I think maybe we'll end with "You Ain't Going Nowhere" from...

HANSARD: Ah.

GROSS: ...From the soundtrack of the Dylan movie - the movie about Dylan, "I'm Not Here," the fictional movie about Dylan. So, you recorded "You Ain't Going Nowhere" for it.

HANSARD: Yeah.

GROSS: Now, I know Dylan was a big influence on you, Glen. You sang Dylan songs when you were busking as a teenager on the streets. The Frames opened for Dylan on some tour or another, so I imagine you got to meet him.

HANSARD: Yeah.

GROSS: Did he have much to say? Is he meetable? I mean, is he accessible as a person?

HANSARD: Well, you know, I'm very, very lucky in that I got to spend, you know, some time in Bob's company. And he's one of those men, I don't even feel very comfortable talking about him because he's just so - for me, he's just a great, and, you know, I've been lucky in my life, in that I've met - all the people that I've really adored I've somehow managed to meet, and I feel great about that. And so spending a bit of time in a master's company gives one a great sense of humility. And so all I can say is that I definitely wasn't disappointed.

I spoke to Bob about Woody Guthrie, and that was for me - you know, what was really great about that was it was two people - two artists speaking about another artist. And that was the - for me, was the way, the best way the conversation could flow because, you know, what do you say to the man who's heard every different approach?

And when I met him, I just I didn't really know what to say. I guess, I was lucky and what just fell out of my mouth was, I said, meeting you, Bob, is a bit like what it must have been like when you met Woody.' And the conversation could have died right there, but it didn't. It went on and you know, Bob talked about Woody, and I talked about Woody. I knew just enough to keep a conversation going with him, you know...

GROSS: Right.

HANSARD: So for me it's been a wonderful experience being in his company.

GROSS: Well, I want to thank you both so much for talking with us. Thank you.

HANSARD: Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU AIN'T GOING NOWHERE")

HANSARD: (Singing) Clouds so swift. Rains won't lift. Gate won't close. Railings froze. Get your mind off wintertime. You ain't going nowhere. Whoo-ee, ride me high. Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come. Oh, oh, are we gonna fly. Down in the easy chair.

BIANCULLI: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova spoke to Terry Gross in 2008. He died Wednesday in a motorcycle accident at the age of 56. Here's another of Hansard's songs.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HIGH HOPE")

HANSARD: (Singing) I'm workin' on the high hope. And if it all works out, you might just see me or hear from me in a while. I'm gonna make it across this tight rope. Then I'm comin' for my prize. No more I'll be waitin' 'round while life just passes by. Maybe when our hearts realign, maybe when we've both had some time, I'm gonna see you there. I'm gonna see you there, there. Where we can be natural, there. 'Cause I've been livin' in the half life.

BIANCULLI: Coming up, Monday marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Tony Bennett, and our jazz historian, Kevin Whitehead, has an appreciation. This is FRESH AIR.

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. Monday marks the centennial of the birth of singer Anthony Benedetto . Early patron Bob Hope suggested he anglicize his stage name to Tony Bennett. A lifelong New Yorker, Bennett had a long series of hits starting in the 1950s. In 1965, Bennett marched on Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. Later, he became a successful painter of portraits, landscapes and cityscapes. He then had a spectacular late-career comeback, recording scores of vocal duets. Tony Bennett's hits include "Rags To Riches," "I Wanna Be Around" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco." Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead offers an appreciation, which includes some of Bennett's lesser-known songs.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OUT OF THIS WORLD")

TONY BENNETT: (Singing) You're clear out of this world. When I'm looking at you, I hear out of this world. The music that no mortal ever knew.

KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Tony Bennett, 1964, with saxophonist Stan Getz, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Elvin Jones - fast company. The song is "Out Of This World" by one of Bennett's favorite composers, Harold Arlen. Tony Bennett didn't call himself a jazz singer, but the influence was hard to miss in his swinging paraphrases of a tune. He had one of the great pop singer voices - soaring, confident, big as a billboard. He liked a big finish. Even his vulnerability sounded self-assured, but good taste and timing would save him. Still, on early singles, he might battle top-heavy orchestrations and gimmicky effects, like the tango beat plus castanets that paint a Latin setting on "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS")

BENNETT: (Singing) Here is where you'll always find me, always walking up and down. But I left my soul behind me in an old cathedral town. The joy that you find here, you borrow. You cannot keep it long it seems. But Gigolo and Gigolette still sing a song and dance along the boulevard of broken dreams.

WHITEHEAD: When Tony Bennett was getting started in the late 1940s, early booster Pearl Bailey warned him learning proper stagecraft takes 10 years. He got there about on schedule. Bennett's favorite jazz composer was Duke Ellington, but his favorite band leader was Count Basie, whose orchestra he recorded with in 1958. Basie's fireworks in that period fit a singer who liked to go big.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE")

BENNETT: (Singing) Things are mending now. I see a rainbow blending now. We'll have a happy ending now. We're taking a chance. I hear the trumpets blow again. And we're taking a chance. About to take that ride again. Taking a chance.

WHITEHEAD: In the early '60s, Tony Bennett had his signature hit "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and made some good jazzy records. But as rock music took over, he came to stand for a fading breed, guy in a tux with a loosened tie singing Cole Porter in a Vegas lounge. Bennett ignored advice to modernize and kept on going. In the '70s, he downsized, had his own small label and recorded some of his most intimate sessions in duo with pianist Bill Evans, and with a quartet run by Ruby Braff on cornet and George Barnes on guitar. On ballads, the singer kept his power in reserve.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ISN'T IT ROMANTIC")

BENNETT: (Singing) Isn't it romantic, merely to be young on such a night as this? Isn't it romantic? Every note that's sung is like a lover's kiss. Sweet symbols in the moonlight. Do you mean that I will fall in love perchance? Isn't it romance?

WHITEHEAD: In 1980, Tony Bennett's career was in a slump. Things began turning around when his son Danny became his manager, introducing him to younger listeners via MTV and late-night television shows. The CD reissue boom helped. Folks heard Tony's old sides with fresh ears or for the first time. And he made a few records with his working trio, where we could hear how expertly his longtime pianist Ralph Sharon shepherds him along.

BENNETT: (Singing) I took a trip on a train, and I thought about you. I passed a shadowy lane, and I thought about you. Two or three cars parked under the stars, a windin' stream. Moon shining down on some little town, and with each beam, the same old dream.

WHITEHEAD: In his last phase, Tony Bennett famously recorded many, many duets with diverse singers - B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Barbra Streisand, Bono, Billy Joel, Michael Buble. That's just some of the B's. The series got rolling in the '90s when he paired up with k.d. lang, a very good fit. Here they are in 2001.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEEP THE FAITH, BABY")

BENNETT: (Singing) I'll go on.

K D LANG: (Singing) I'll go on.

BENNETT: (Singing) I'll go on.

LANG: (Singing) Go on.

BENNETT: (Singing) I'll go on and...

TONY BENNETT AND K D LANG: (Singing) Do my best.

LANG: (Singing) I'll go on. I'll go on. I'll go on and never rest.

BENNETT: (Singing) Keep the faith. Keep the faith.

LANG: I will.

BENNETT: (Singing) Keep the faith, (laughter) baby. Oh, yes.

WHITEHEAD: That fake little laugh - he used that a lot. Tony Bennett's late duets cast a wide net. Some are quite good. Others, not so much. The rock 'em, sock 'em swingers with Lady Gaga lean hard on the old Vegas glitz, as if to vindicate the 1960s Tony the hippies ignored. At least all the attention the duets brought him let Bennett see that in the long run, everybody loved him just as he was. Tony Bennett sang as long as he was able, last performing in 2021, on turning 95. He died less than two years later. He had a voice you can recognize anywhere. A singer can't do much better than that.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCING IN THE DARK")

BENNETT: (Singing) Dancing in the dark till the tune ends. We're dancing in the dark, and it soon ends. We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here.

BIANCULLI: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead is the author of the books "Why Jazz?," "Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide To Jazz Stories On Film" and "New Dutch Swing." Singer Tony Bennett died in 2023 at the age of 96. Monday is the hundredth anniversary of Bennett's birth. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews "I Want Your Sex, " the new comedy film from Olivia Wilde. This is FRESH AIR.

DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: This is FRESH AIR. In the new comedy "I Want Your Sex," Olivia Wilde plays an LA-based artist who initiates a dominant-submissive relationship with her younger employee, played by Cooper Hoffman. It's the first new feature in 12 years from the queer cinema pioneer Gregg Araki, and it's opening in theaters today after premiering to much acclaim in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Our film critic, Justin Chang, has this review.

JUSTIN CHANG, BYLINE: When Gregg Araki brought his new movie, "I Want Your Sex," to this year's Sundance Film Festival, it felt like a long overdue homecoming. In the early '90s, Sundance helped launch Araki into the front ranks of queer independent filmmakers with daringly sexy, funny and violent tales of gay identity, like "The Living End," "Nowhere" and one movie whose title I can't say here. His output has been more erratic in the decades since. But in all his work, including the 2019 TV series "Now Apocalypse," he's never lost sight of sex as a defining force in the lives of his characters, as well as his audiences.

Or, as one character in "I Want Your Sex" puts it, sex is everything. Those are the words of Erika Tracy, a multimedia artist who's known for her provocative work. She's played by a terrific Olivia Wilde. When we first meet Erika, she's floating face down in her own Los Angeles swimming pool while a young man in a pink bra and panties - that's Elliot, played by Cooper Hoffman - clumsily tries to save her.

I was reminded of the beginning of "Sunset Boulevard." And indeed, "I Want Your Sex" is an erotic comedy by way of a noirish mystery. The story flashes back several weeks to around the time Erika hires Elliot as her assistant. Elliot is smart and friendly, but also hopelessly naive. And he has no idea what he's in for when one day, Erika calls him into her office.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I WANT YOUR SEX")

OLIVIA WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) There is something I need to speak with you about. I wouldn't want you to take this the wrong way. But the way you've been looking at me has been making me feel uncomfortable.

COOPER HOFFMAN: (As Elliot) What?

WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) Don't pretend you haven't been flirting with me, Elliot. And it is entirely inappropriate in the workplace.

HOFFMAN: (As Elliot) Oh, my God. I am so sorry. I don't even know what I've been doing, exactly, but I promise, whatever it is, I will stop immediately.

WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) As long as we're really on the same page about that.

HOFFMAN: (As Elliot) Yeah, I would love to be on the same page, yes.

WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) OK.

CHANG: Erika's accusation is, of course, a come-on. Before long, the two have crossed over into entirely inappropriate terrain, with Erika initiating Elliot into a dominant-submissive relationship. Most of their encounters take place at Erika's home and are played for easy laughs. But when they're not having sex, Erika and Elliot have some pretty pointed conversations about why so many Gen Zers like Elliot are, well, not having sex.

Elliot blames COVID and overprotective parents, noting that he and his peers were raised to fear any kind of in-person socialization, let alone intimacy. Erika calls them all out as a generation of cowards, arguing that the whole point of sex, and of life itself, is to take risks and push past boundaries. Araki more or less agrees with her. You could think of "I Want Your Sex" as his State of the Physical Union address.

At 66, he no longer represents the younger generation, but he's still clearly concerned for their well-being. That might've seemed condescending coming from another filmmaker. But Araki's style of comedy is warm, genuinely inclusive and thoroughly disarming. From moment to moment, the movie is pure pleasure - full of bright colors, delectable sight gags and sharp, pop-culture-savvy one-liners, like when Elliot, wearing all black for a hot date, is told that he looks like an assassin in a Netflix Yakuza movie.

There are also sharp performances from Mason Gooding as Elliot's snarky gay coworker, Zap, and Chase Sui Wonders as Elliot's best friend, Apple, who envies his forays into kink. As it turns out, though, there's not much to envy. Erika invites Elliot to take their already wild relationship to another level. But what happens next simply doesn't ring true. It's the movie's most daring scene, and ultimately, its most disappointing one. Like some other recent BDSM-themed films, like "Babygirl" and "Pillion," "I Want Your Sex" brings its leads to an emotional crisis point that lays bare the long-term limitations of the characters' arrangement.

Araki is hardly a moralist, but he's mellowed a bit since his more radical early days. And the movie, for all its twists and trysts, follows a fairly conventional arc. And the narrative machinery really starts to splutter in the closing stretch as the pieces of the swimming pool mystery plot snap laboriously into place. Even so, I left "I Want Your Sex" with real respect for Araki's determination to start a cross-generational conversation and his fondness for his characters and his actors.

Hoffman, who came to fame a few years ago in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza," has a wily goofball charisma. He never becomes the butt of the movie's joke. And Wilde is outstanding as Erika, mocking her own art world pretensions one minute, delivering a sex-positive monologue the next, and always seeming to keep the truth of what she really wants under wraps. She's a classic Gregg Araki creation, a hilarious yet wholly serious reminder of the slippery, unpredictable nature of human desire.

BIANCULLI: Justin Chang is a film critic at The New Yorker. "I Want Your Sex," starring Olivia Wilde, opens in theaters today. On Monday's show, the bra-burning feminist protesters of the 1968 Miss America Pageant, that was just a myth. Bras were never burned. But the pageant did ignite a battle over beauty, race and power that still echoes today. We talk with historian Micki McElya about her new book, "Liberation Summer." Hope you can join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROB DIXON TRIO'S "SAN LEANDRO")

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(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROB DIXON TRIO'S "SAN LEANDRO")

BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our senior producer today is Roberta Shorrock. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support from Julian Herzfeld and Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm David Bianculli.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROB DIXON TRIO'S "SAN LEANDRO")

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