In the history of popular music, Tony Bennett stands tall. His professional singing career can be said to have started at age 13 when he began working as a singing waiter in Queens, but it was only after serving in WWII that he landed a recording contract.

Bennett has cut more than 70 albums, traversing the worlds of pop, jazz and showtunes. Today, at age 92, he still tours and records, and his championing of younger artists has helped bring his music to newer generations of fans.

Working with fresher faces has always served to elevate both Bennett and his greener collaborators. Several decades after hits like “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” had earned him a place in the pantheon of popular vocalists, he started dueting with much younger singers. His collaborative spirit had already been on rich display through a series of projects with jazz pianist Bill Evans; the two recorded many sessions together, all of which would eventually be compiled and reissued in 2009. Bennett holds dear some advice Evans gave him shortly before the pianist’ 1980 death. “Truth and beauty: that’s what you need to follow,” Evans told the singer. “Nothing else.

“Bill was such a profound artist,” Bennett says in a recent email interview. “His words have fueled me ever since, and I think he was absolutely right. You need to be as honest as you possibly can. But even in the midst of that honesty—which may be dark—you have to find the light, the beauty that is always present in life.”

In Bennett’s music, that beauty takes the form of romantic songs. Whether they’re about heartbreak, loss or the joys of love, Bennett sings in a distinctive yet unaffected style. And while most singers would have long since retired, the nonagenarian vocalist is still going strong: Bennett’s current tour finds him crisscrossing the U.S. for dates in California and the Midwest before heading to England for a pair of performances at the Royal Albert Hall.

Bennett credits a series of breaks that came after his discharge from the Army as key in helping him maintain his singing voice. “I was very fortunate to be able to study at the American Theatre Wing,” he says. “I took all kinds of classes: acting, movement and vocal instruction.” He specifically cites his training in the Bel Canto singing method, one used by many opera singers. “It gave me the foundation I needed right through the years to be able to keep my voice in shape,” he says.

“There is a saying that I was told once,” Bennett continues. “If you skip your exercises for a day, you will know it. If you skip your exercises for two days, the band will know it. And if you skip your exercises for three days, the audience will know it.”

Though Bennett’s type of music fell out of favor during the rock era, by the 1990s his career was once again in full flower. Once the new century began, he cut an acclaimed album with k.d. lang, following it up with Duets: An American Classic. On that platinum-selling release he was joined by a variety of singers from across the pop music landscape, including the Dixie Chicks, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Stevie Wonder. 2011’s Duets II repeated the formula with similar success. Viva Duets explored a Latin American style.

In 2014 Bennett released one of his most successful albums, Cheek to Cheek, with Lady Gaga. Bennett is effusive in his praise of the singer-actor-songwriter. “When she gets on stage, she understands that the audience wants to be entertained,” he says. “That’s why she has so many fans who absolutely adore her. I am one of them.”

More recently, Bennett released yet another collaborative album, this one with Diana Krall. The two first sang together on the Grammy-winning Duets: An American Classic; the new album, 2018’s Love is Here to Stay digs into the Great American Songbook with superb results.

A consummate entertainer, Tony Bennett lives to perform. He says that his goal is to make sure audiences leave his shows saying, “I enjoyed myself tonight.” “That’s how I would like to be remembered,” he says, “as an entertainer who made people feel good.”

Tony Bennett
May 3, 8 p.m. $75-$130
City National Civic

Do you know the way to San Jose? How about San Francisco? Tony Bennett is coming to town, and we heard he left something there a while back. The 90-year-old living legend plays the City National Civic this Saturday. If rock & roll is more your style, you might consider heading over the hill to The Crepe Place, where Seattle indie trio The Cave Singers are performing, or else you can check out the heavy, metalcore sounds of Union City quartet Decades In, who rock the X Bar in Cupertino. All this, plus Lex The Hex Master keeps the spook-factor alive, bringing his horrorcore sounds to BackBar SoFa and the Palo Alto Players stage a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank at the Lucie Stern Theatre.

The Diary of Anne Frank
Fri, 8pm, $22
Lucie Stern Theater, Palo Alto
In this new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman, the story of Anne Frank—who as a young teen spent two years hiding from SS patrols in an attic in the Netherlands—is brought to life on stage. Working with the original script by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Kesselman incorporates recently discovered passages from Frank’s diaries, as well as accounts from Holocaust survivors. The Tony Award-nominated Diary sheds a fresh light on one of the most compelling narratives to emerge from the horrors of World War II. Presented by Palo Alto Players, The Diary of Anne Frank runs through Nov. 20. (JT)

The Cave Singers
Fri, 9pm, $15
The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz
Seattle-based trio The Cave Singers are just the latest in a long line of indie rock bands to give up on the traditional record production and distribution process. After releasing 2011’s No Witch on Matador and 2013’s Naomi on JagJaguar, the band abandoned all record labels, turning to the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo to finance their latest full-length, Banshee—a 10-song collection of slowly bubbling, psych-tinged rock & roll. Though the band wrote Banshee by remotely trading demos, they tracked the album live over six days with No Witch producer Randall Dunn—a process that stands in stark contrast to the month they took to record Naomi. (NV)

The Pointer Sisters
Fri, 8pm, $67
Campbell Heritage Theater
Oakland-bred R&B group The Pointer Sisters bring their long-running hit machine to Campbell this week. Known for such classics as “I’m So Excited,” “Jump (For My Love) and “Neutron Dance”—from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack—the Sisters scored big hits in the 1980s by combining synth-pop arrangements with soulful vocal performances. They’ve been making music for more than 40 years. After the untimely death of founding member June Pointer in 2006, Ruth’s daughter, Issa, helped the group continue by taking June’s place. They’ve been nominated for nine Grammys and awarded three. (NV)

Decades In
Fri, 8:30pm, $10
X Bar, Cupertino
After more than 10 years on the local post-hardcore and emo scene, the Union City quartet formerly known as Dennis is Dead decided it was time for a new moniker: Decades In. Since their formation in 2003, they’ve shared stages with a number of prominent acts, including The Acacia Strain and Arsonists Get All The Girls. The group recently released their first self-titled full-length under their new name. The 10-song set features the lead single “Buried Under,” a crushing metalcore dirge with an accompanying wartime video. They share the stage with Anever, Tamerlane and Brace For Mavericks this Friday. (JT)

Cement Prairie
Fri, 11am, $6-$10
NUMU, Los Gatos
During the 1950s an estimated 100,000 Native Americans were incentivized to relocate from reservations to urban centers, including San Francisco and San Jose. “Cement Prairie” explores the impact of this program, which was intended to encourage the assimilation of the country’s native population. However, because of continued discrimination and segregation, the program ultimately led to the unification of disparate tribes into politically organized blocks. This, in turn, gave way to the modern pan-Indian political movement. San Jose and the broader Bay Area became a hub of this movement, which continues to advocate for American Indian rights to this day. (NV)

Tony Bennett
Sat, 8pm, $70+
City National Civic, San Jose
Tony Bennett is truly a living legend. For well over 60 years he has entertained audiences with renditions of American pop, jazz and big-band standards—including his signature tune, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Since he began his singing career in the late ’40s, he’s worked with some of the biggest names in show biz, including Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson and Lady Gaga. At 90-years-old, Bennett has 19 Grammys to his name and is still touring the country, charming crowds both young and old with his disarming smile, winning personality and smooth, crooning style. (TJ)

Mosaic America
Sat, 6pm, $25-$50
De Anza Visual Performing Arts Center, Cupertino
They say that everyone smiles in the same language. Something similar might be said of dancing. Produced by Sangam Arts, “Mosaic America” pays homage to a variety of dancing styles from a wide swath of global cultures, including  Aztec, Bharatanatyam, Chinese Dance, Contemporary, Folklorico, Flamenco, Guitar, Haitian Drumming, Indian Folk, Mridangam and more. Directed by Priya Das, the production will go beyond simply presenting each form of dance in a showcase format—as dancers and choreographers from multiple disciplines will work together on cross-cultural displays of movement. (JT)

The Sound of Music
Tue, 7:30pm, $43+
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
Nuns, Nazis and frivolous singing—what’s not to love? Sometimes moving on from tragedy includes a little bit of music to get going. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Tony-, Grammy- and Academy Award-winning classic tells the story of the Von Trapp family, who struggle to flee Austria in order to escape the rising Nazi menace. Directed by three-time Tony Award-winner Jack O’Brien, Broadway San Jose’s production of The Sound of Music promises to delight audiences with enduring melodies such as “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things” and “Edelweiss.” The production runs through Nov. 13. (JT)

Corridos the Remix
Tue, 8pm, $11-$21
Hammer Theatre, San Jose
Weaving family history and the art of storytelling, the father-son duo of Luis and Kinan Valdez highlight the passing of one generation to the next. Luis, who is regarded as the creator of Chicano theater, is best known for penning the play Zoot Suit and the film La Bamba. Written by Luis and directed by Kinan, the new musical Corridos the Remix explores the relationship between an old-school grandfather and his rebellious granddaughter, as they seek to understand each other in a rapidly changing world. Presented by San Jose State University, the production runs through Nov. 12. (JT)