Bennett, like so many singers of Italian-American descent -- from Russ Columbo to Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Vic Damone and Bobby Darin -- possesses a certain kind of cool, a certain kind of smoothness and ease in his singing. He sings with a passion that nevertheless appears casual and easy.

Bennett's seeming effortlessness reminds me of an old Italian saying -- "never let them see you sweat." He embodies the Italian ideal of "la sprezzatura" -- making hard work appear easy. La sprezzatura was the concept of the 14th-century Italian writer Baldassare Castiglione, who, in his book "Il Cortegiano," or "The Book of the Courtier," explained how courtiers -- those who attend the court or homes of royalty -- should appear to their rulers. (Or, in the case of entertainers, their audience.) Originally meaning to exude nonchalance, the term has come to mean staying cool.

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