The Tour Never Ends

ewly affiliated with Yamaha, Ralph Sharon has an unique credential on his resume: "I found the tune 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' for Tony Bennett," the veteran performer relates. Sharon, who has worked with Bennett for more than 40 years, and now serves as his musical director, uses CFIIIS concert grand pianos to accompany Bennett on tour, and owns a Disklavier® DC7. "I like the way they are maintained; they're kept in tune and great

"With Yamaha, I know I'm going to get the same high quality every time."

condition," says Sharon of the Yamaha grand pianos he encounters on the road. "Whenever I play one I'm very happy. With Yamaha, I know I'm going to get the same high quality every time."

Sharon used his own Disklavier to lay down the tracks for Ralph Sharon Plays Tony Bennett Favorites, a Yamaha PianoSoft™ release featuring 14 solo piano renditions. He played the pieces at home, recorded them to disk, and sent the MIDI files to Yamaha's Software Development team for mastering.

A British native who's lived in Los Angeles for decades, Sharon appears on much of Bennett's recorded work - including the new release, Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool—as well as projects of his own. Sharon has recently recorded Playing With My Friends, a collection of duets he recorded with artists such as BB King, Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, and Bonnie Raitt.

Ralph Sharon perorms with Gray Sargent

And he's not kidding about finding "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

"When I lived in New York, my songwriter
friends would always bring me stuff for Tony," recalls Sharon. "One day they gave me a batch of songs and I put them in a drawer. About two years later, we were going on a road trip, and I happened to be looking for a shirt. I saw this tune, put it in the bag, and said, 'You never know.'"

"We were playing Hot Springs, Arkansas, and I told Tony, 'You know something, we're going to San Francisco. This might be a nice idea,'" relates Sharon. "I wrote an arrangement for it and Tony performed it in San Francisco, and there was a Columbia Records man there."

The rest is history, but Sharon is still looking ahead, and the road beckons. "With Tony," he says, "the tour never ends."