TORONTO - Call it The Curious Case of Tony Bennett.

The 82-year-old singing legend seems to getting younger instead older after some 60 years in show business judging from his powerful closing night performance of the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival on Sunday night at the Canon Theatre.

Bennett, backed by pianist Lee Musiker, guitarist Gray Sargent, drummer Harold Jones and bassist Marshall Wood, delivered a classy, generous, heartfelt, intimate and often humorous show that displayed his amazing vitality.

In fact, calling Bennett old seems just plain wrong given the sheer strength of his voice and his ability to still dance and twirl around the stage.

Young At Heart, it seems, was written especially for him.

He's also an expert at the art of the dramatic gesture, whether he was pointing his finger, pounding his chest, snapping his finger, whispering, or even singing without a microphone as he did towards the end of his 90-minute set with Fly Me To The Moon backed only by Sargent.

The evening opened with a three-song performance by his daughter, Antonia Bennett, but it was clear after some polite applause that it was the star attraction who everyone came to see.

Bennett didn't disappoint as he finally appeared smiling and nattily attired in a pale yellow blazer, blue tie and blue slacks which showed off his brilliant blue eyes and tanned skin.

We couldn't keep our eyes off him frankly as he moved into the Great American Songbook with Gershwin's They All Laughed and John Kander's Maybe This Time, before going international with Kurt Weill's Speak Low (When You Speak Love) revealling a still sexy side too.

Is there anything Bennett can't do justice to as a singer?

Apparently not, as he demonstrated next with Hank Williams' Cold Cold Heart.

"Rosemary Clooney and I were the first American Idols," joked Bennett, although he was actually speaking the truth.

Turns out Clooney came in first and Bennett came in second on an amateur hour TV show that led to Pearl Bailey using him in her revue where he was discovered by Bob Hope, who gave him his stage name. (He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto.)

"I love it, I just love it," said Bennett of singing on stage and it shows.

From there, the hits just kept on coming: Gershwin's snappy I Got Rhythm, The Way You Look Tonight, the gospel standard Sing You Sinners - which got the audience clapping for the first time - the romantic I Found You Just In Time, The Best Is Yet To Come, For Once In My Life, which prompted the first standing ovation, The Shadow Of Your Smile, The Good Life - "I'd like to dedicate this song to Britney Spears" he joked - his signature song, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Steppin' Out, and Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

Despite his power as a singer, Bennett was the ultimate collaborator, often handing over duties mid-song to his talented backing musicians so they could stretch their creative muscles out with impressive solos like during Count Basie's In A Mellow Tone or the Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman classic How Do You Keep The Music Playing.

Bennett also mused on the relevancy of many of the standards like Who Cares (As Long As You Care For Me) with its lyrics about failing banks and plummeting stocks although it was written the year he was born in 1926.

The rest of us, meanwhile, were just marvelling at his incredible staying power.

SUN RATING: 5 OUT OF 5