“Often, in a scenario like that, any individual goes to take your job,” mentioned Langosch. “It’s simply the best way of the enterprise.”
Langosch was surprised when Bennett advised him that the spot within the band would stay his when he was prepared for it. Bennett continued paying Langosch for the 5 months he took off to take care of his spouse, who additionally had a number of sclerosis.
“It was extraordinary,” Langosch advised The Washington Submit in a cellphone interview on the day of Bennett’s demise on the age of 96.
“I simply can’t neglect one thing like that,” mentioned Langosch, his voice trembling from his house in Chevy Chase, Md.
Langosch’s path to taking part in with Bennett occurred partly by likelihood, however like many fortunate breaks, he had already put in years of preparation.
Langosch started taking part in the bass as a toddler when he joined the orchestra at his public faculty in Bethesda, Md. From there, he by no means stopped taking part in the instrument.
He went to Montgomery School for 3 semesters, the place he met jazz musician Invoice Potts, who grew to become a mentor and helped him meet individuals within the business.
After a number of years of honing his expertise, Langosch acquired a shock name from Tony Bennett’s highway supervisor, who mentioned he was urgently searching for a bassist to play a three-night run with Bennett and the Sacramento Symphony. Langosch instantly booked a flight.
“I had a buddy who knew Tony’s drummer, and he advisable me,” Langosch recalled, including that he had additionally raised his profile by working with distinguished musicians that have been passing by means of D.C., together with Mel Tormé and Phil Woods. “I used to be in the suitable place on the proper time.”
Though Langosch was assured in his musical talents, he was nervous to play with Bennett, who at that time had lengthy maintained celebrity standing.
“It was excessive stress. You didn’t need to mess up,” Langosch mentioned.
After the primary efficiency in Sacramento, Langosch was employed because the band’s bassist.
“It was such an honor to get to do a gig like that,” Langosch mentioned. “I all the time cherished his singing.”
Langosch went on to play with Bennett for a cumulative 20 years — from 1985 to 1993, after which once more from 1996 to 2008.
“After I first began working with him, it was earlier than he had his resurgence,” Langosch mentioned, pointing to the artist’s revival within the late Eighties, after Bennett was briefly seen as a “has-been.”
“It was an unimaginable factor to see Tony make it again,” Langosch mentioned. “An important factor for him was the standard of the music. As a musician, you’re actually fortunate to get to work with an artist like that.”
Along with admiring Bennett’s musical expertise, Langosch shortly got here to understand him in different methods.
“He was a really real particular person,” he mentioned.
Many occasions over the course of his profession, Langosch watched in as Bennett confirmed kindness to each bandmates and strangers.
“If there was any individual that was in hassle, Tony was one of many first individuals there,” he mentioned. “He helped out as a lot as he might.”
Bennett famously served in World Battle II, writing in his 1998 autobiography, “The Good Life,” concerning the atrocities he noticed. These reminiscences led him to turn into a civil rights activist. In 1965, his buddy and singer Harry Belafonte requested him to stroll in a civil rights march deliberate by Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. Bennett accepted with out hesitation.
Though Langosch had witnessed Bennett’s generosity earlier than, he by no means anticipated to be a beneficiary of it.
“I actually don’t know what I might have accomplished in any other case,” Langosch mentioned about his household disaster.
He mentioned Bennett referred to as him a number of occasions to test in whereas his spouse was in poor health, and provided to attach him with famend docs. When the couple visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Langosch mentioned, “he picked up our lodge room.”
“She was to date gone that they wouldn’t deal with her,” mentioned Langosch. “We spent the previous couple of months simply being quiet and managing her ache.”
After Langosch’s spouse died, “I felt like I actually wanted to get again to work,” he mentioned. “It was a really, very tough transition.”
Being in Bennett’s band, although, “was like being in a household.”
Langosch carried on as Bennett’s bassist till 2008, when he determined to retire from touring.
“When it’s time, it’s time,” mentioned Langosch, who continued making music. He carried out at native venues — such because the Bertha’s Mussels in Baltimore — and taught jazz at Virginia Tech in 2013.
“I nonetheless play as a lot as I can,” he mentioned.
Langosch stayed in contact with Bennett over time and sometimes considered what the artist did to lighten his load throughout a turbulent time.
“Folks ought to know what sort of particular person he was,” Langosch mentioned. “He was an actual human being.”
