In the final days of Tony Bennett’s seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease — before his death at 96 in July — the legendary crooner was able to spend “meaningful” time with his jazz-singer daughter Antonia Bennett even without speaking.
“There was no more traveling; there was no more, you know, stages or fancy places,” Antonia, 49, told The Post. “We just would spend time together … even if there were not words shared.
“Sometimes I would go over there, and he wasn’t as verbal as he had been in the past. But he always knew who I was, and sometimes we would just hold hands or watch TV or just be together. And that was incredibly meaningful for me.”
After years of opening for her father, Antonia will be carrying on his legacy when she makes her New York headlining debut at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday.
It will be a fitting way for Antonia to honor her dad’s memory at a place he called the “best jazz room in the city” as one of its premier performers. However, this is not a tribute show.
“As of now, I haven’t done any of his, like, super signature songs,” she said. “It’s just very daunting to do that. It hasn’t been that long since he’s been gone, and I still feel like he’s here.”
Still, she isn’t ruling out giving into a moment of filial inspiration if his spirit moves her during the two sets of her one-night-only engagement.
“You know, who knows? It might happen,” said Antonia. “But it has to be right if I do it.”
The Berklee College of Music graduate — who, as Bennett’s daughter with his second wife, actress Sandra Grant, is the youngest of his four children — has shared the stage with her dad everywhere from London’s Royal Albert Hall to New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
And they benefited from an intuitive, instinctive understanding, founded in having performed together, when faced with communication challenges during his Alzheimer’s-stricken final years.
“When you know somebody so well, you don’t really need to communicate with words,” said Antonia. “There’s a feeling and an energy between the two, and you pretty much know what the other one is thinking just by looking at each other.”
The Los Angeles-based musician and her Queens-born father — a longtime Upper West Side resident and a lifelong painter — also shared a love of art. “We used to walk over to the Frick [Collection] museum all the time, or go up to the Met,” she said.
The “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” singer never lost his passion for painting. “I think he did [paint] for a long time in the end,” she told The Post. “Towards the end, he would do it if he was prompted.”
And even as he was losing his Alzheimer’s battle, the beloved late star maintained his positive attitude.
“I’m sure that the end-of-life process is not easy for anybody, but I have to say, to what I witnessed, he was never really, like, a big complainer,” said Antonia.
“He was always very amenable. And he seemed to just take the same philosophy that he always had when he was younger, which is ‘Always look forward, never look back.’ He seemed to always carry that.”
Antonia also credits Lady Gaga — her father’s Grammy-winning duet partner — with providing special support in his final years.
“They had a very sweet relationship,” she said. “God bless her. She should have only the best success and happiness in her life.”
And the chanteuse — who just released a new single, “Right on Time,” and is working on original material for an upcoming album — wouldn’t say no to carrying on the Bennett name by pairing up with the “Shallow” singer.
“If she wants to do a duet with me, of course I would be open to it,” she said. “She’s lovely, and she’s a tremendous talent.”
But the female singer who most influenced both father and daughter is Billie Holiday.
“My dad listened to a lot of Billie Holiday,” said Antonia. “And he told me stories about going to see Billie in [New] Jersey because she couldn’t work in the city. He was just a kid sitting in the front row, watching her, enthralled.”
He never lost that same sense of appreciation for music — and being able to perform it for adoring audiences. It’s part of the family legacy that Bennett hopes will live on in her.
“I mean, that’s a lot of pressure right there,” she said. “I just try to not take things for granted — like him.”
