It’s a great, big party for Tony Bennett

The year 1926 was a magical one for jazz. In May, in Alton, Ill., Cleota Davis and her dentist husband, Miles, had a baby boy they named after daddy. Four months later, in a North Carolina town with the positively quaint name of Hamlet, the Coltrane family welcomed a newborn named John. And in August that year, in Queens, N.Y., Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born. He probably arrived in the world like everybody else, naked and crying, but on most days since he’s worn a natty suit and a winner’s smile because, well, he is Tony Bennett, after all.

On Thursday, Bennett came to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood to blow out some candles with some good friends. His actual birthday came and went a few months ago, but, well, he is Tony Bennett after all. As a playful Stevie Wonder said from the stage, “It’s the longest birthday I’ve ever known in my life.”

The Kodak event was a fundraiser for Hole in the Wall Camps, the rustic refuges for seriously ill children co-founded by Paul Newman and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with plans to open a new site in Colorado. There are already eight affiliated camps, including sites in Israel, Ireland and here in California at Lake Hughes.

The program was hosted by Billy Crystal and featured performances by Kelly Clarkson, Marc Anthony, Wonder and Madeleine Peyroux, each accompanied by the Gregg Field Big Band. Bennett closed the show with a short set that showed his voice to be still sinewy and supple, his charm unflagging. His first number was “The Best Is Yet to Come” and he delivered that famous first line with a wink and a smile: “Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum....”

There were plenty of celebrities dotting the crowd and a steady parade of them on stage singing Bennett’s praises. Bruce Willis gushed about seeing Bennett sing sans microphone at Carnegie Hall. George Clooney told a moving story about Bennett’s loyalty to Clooney’s aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney, during her toughest years when her personal struggles prompted many peers to abandon her. “He was the only one who stood up and gave her a shot.”

The actor, standing on the same stage where he accepted an Oscar earlier this year, noted that one of his humbler gigs in Los Angeles was as a driver for his aunt and, on some occasions, for Bennett. “By the way,” he said, “the rates have gone up.”

There was some disappointment in the audience that Jack Nicholson, billed as a host, called in sick and that Rascal Flatts, the bestselling pop music act of this year, was also scratched from the program. But the music from stage was stellar, especially “Because of You” by Clarkson, who more than proved the music-industry insider consensus that she is the “American Idol” who really matters.

Bennett is of a generation of performers who rarely mix their stage work with their politics, but, with election night so fresh in the mind, many who took the stage in his honor used their time to comment on the outcome. Crystal marveled at the fact that a woman will now lead the Democrats in the House. The punch line: “And I think Barbra Streisand will do a great job.” Crystal also had plenty of gags about the age of the man of honor; about Newman, 81; and notable names in the crowd such as Hugh Hefner, who also was born in that sparkling year of 1926.

Crystal sassed that Bennett’s “first record was produced by Thomas Edison” and that at 80, when “most people are producing phlegm, Tony is producing albums,” an allusion to Bennett’s latest collection, “Duets: An American Classic,” which has Bennett taking a page from the late-career plan of his old pal Frank Sinatra. The CD, which debuted at No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts last month, teams Bennett with Bono, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Sting, Billy Joel, Streisand, James Taylor, John Legend and others.

Bennett took it all in with a laugh. After the jokes it was time to sing, and Bennett, eyes at full twinkle, stood center stage and performed the song everyone wanted to hear. On this night, his version of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was unhurried and understated, until that climatic ending when the golden sun came shining down on the boy from Queens who made good.

To remind everyone of the dual motivation for the event, youngsters from the Hole in the Wall camps then came on stage and serenaded the beaming Bennett with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” Afterward, Quincy Jones stood in a breezeway outside the venue and marveled at the night: “To me, Tony Bennett is American music. We should have a party for him every month.”