Father and daughter, Tony Bennett and Antonia Bennett. Photo: Peter Mellekas
Jazz singer Antonia Bennett has just released a holiday classics Christmas album - and If the words jazz and Bennett ring bells, you may have put two and two together.
Antonia is the daughter of legendary jazz singer, the late Tony Bennett.
An acclaimed singer in her own right, Bennett's keeping the family tradition alive with Happy Holidays, With Love a just released a holiday classics Christmas album.
Her own childhood Christmas memories are suitably star-studded given the circles her father moved in, she tells RNZ's Saturday Morning.
"We opened our presents on Christmas Eve because we were told that Santa knew that Dad was an entertainer and that he had to sleep in in the morning."
Bennett, 50, grew up in Los Angeles and was surrounded by music, she said.
"On Christmas Day, my Dad would take us over to Ella Fitzgerald's house, and we would spend some time with her and her family.
"And then we would go over to David Hockney, a wonderful painter's house, and spend some time with him and his mom."
She was surrounded by music as a child.
"We would spend Christmas Eve, mostly with our family, and Christmas day going around and visiting other good friends' houses, incredible musicians and artists, and we were just surrounded by a lot of really great talent. And it was inspiring."
Her father released a number of Christmas records over his career, and her latest album keeps her close to her late father, she said.
"It's really a way for me to keep him close to me. You know, I'm still really missing him. It's just a year and a half since he's been gone, and this is a way that I can always just keep him close and think about him.
"Because a lot of these songs that are on my record are records that he recorded. One of them we did together on his record, 'I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm', and so it's just a way for me to do something, to feel the presence of him and my other family members that are no longer with me."
