Longtime ABC News correspondent Bill Diehl '63 interviewed singer-songwriter-pianistTony DeSare '98 on February 16, 2009. Tony was appearing at the Algonquin Hotel's famed Oak Room, in a show he called "Mercer, Moon River, and Me." The appearance was a kick-off for DeSare's tour promoting his new album, "Radio Show." The tour will take the popular performer across the United States and to London.

"Tony has been getting rave review for his shows," says Diehl, "Including a real good one from Stephen Holden in the New York Times, who referred to [the 33-year-old IC alumnus] as 'a lean baby Sinatra.' " Diehl himself calls the album "delightful, spanning several decades of swing, jazz, and pop standards." DeSare wrote five original tunes for the album as well.

"DeSare brings back some of the magic of broadcasting's golden age," Diehl said in his voiceover on the interview, "tied together by voices of radio announcers who set the tone for each track of the album."

Diehl asked DeSare where he got the idea for the album. "This is my third CD, and I wanted to do something different," DeSare replied. "I was listening to an old World War II radio show that Frank Sinatra did, and there was something really magical in there." He was struck by how, before the advent of television, cable, tapes, CDs, iPods, computers, and all the other means by which people receive entertainment nowadays, families used to sit together and enjoy what came over the radio airwaves.

In the interview DeSare also talks about his IC friend and sometime collaborator Brian Herzlinger '97, a filmmaker, whom "you see now on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno every month or so," and the song DeSare and his band performed for Herzlinger's 2003 film My Date with Drew.

The audio interview, which aired on ABCNews.com, includes excerpts from the album, including the classic "Get Happy," the duet "Bizarre Love Triangle" by the band New Order, performed with Jane Monheit, DeSare's rendition of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and DeSare's "A Little Bit Closer."

Diehl enjoyed the interview. "There's quite an age gap between us," he says, "but we're both IC alumni." And that speaks volumes.

Hear ABC News correspondent Bill Diehl's interview with Tony DeSare

Read ICView 2008/2 story about Bill Diehl '63 receiving the Professional Achievement Award from the IC Alumni Association.

Read ICView 2005/3 story about Tony DeSare, "All This and Heaven, Too."

Read ICView 2005/2 story about My Date with Drew, "Six Degrees of Dreaming."