By Steven Suskin
27 Nov 2011
Michael Feinstein: The Sinatra Project, Vol. II: The Good Life [Concord Jazz CJA-33097]
Cover art for "Michael Feinstein: The Sinatra Project, Vol. II: The Good Life"
Speaking of music from the '60s dressed up for an impressive (though not 100-peice) band, we have Volume II of Michael Feinstein's "Sinatra Project." This is Feinstein's attempt to recreate the essence of Sinatra for today. Not by imitating Sinatra or singing all those standards with authentic orchestrations, but by applying the Sinatra style and taste to what we might call Feinstein versions of songs formerly sung by Frank and the Gang.
The results are admirable. "The Good Life" makes superb big-band listening, 12 songs that indeed capture the essence of Frank and at the same time sound wonderfully good. Feinstein's partner in this is arranger/conductor Bill Elliott. This is the same Bill Elliott who did additional orchestrations for the current Roundabout Anything Goes. Here he has 30 or so pieces — plus Feinstein, both as vocalist and pianist on a quarter of the tracks — and Elliott knows precisely what to do with them.
(Semantical note: in theatre they are called orchestrators, men — most usually — who take existing arrangements from the rehearsal hall and distribute the notes amongst the members of the orchestra. In the recording and band world, though, orchestration is the final step of the arranger's job. While some great arrangers happily adapted to theatre — Ralph Burns and Eddie Sauter come immediately to mind — others tended to look at theatre guys like Russell Bennett and Don Walker as skilled orchestrators but not really arrangers.)
Feinstein and Elliott don't pull their songs from the 1960s, exactly; it's the sound of the era in which they are interested. And, specifically, arrangements in the style of Nelson Riddle and Billy May. You've got standards of various stripes. Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and Louis Jordan's "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" on the one hand; "Sway," "For Once in My Life" and "The Good Life" on the other hand; and "The Way You Look Tonight" and "The Lady Is a Tramp" on the third hand. (Sinatra's house-composer Jule Styne is represented with "All I Need Is the Girl," combined with Loesser's "Luck Be a Lady.") Listeners on the lookout for something different will be amused to find Duke Ellington's "C'est Comme Ca," which was sung not by Frank Sinatra but by Theodore Bikel. In the three-performance 1966 flop Pousse-Cafe. And you know what? In the hands of Feinstein and Elliot, it's not bad.
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| Cover art for "Broadway's Carols for a Cure: Volume 13" |
Broadway's Carols for a Cure: Volume 13 [Rock-it Science]
Here comes the annual holiday album for the benefit of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The two-disc set, as always, features selections from the casts of current (and recent) shows contributing their efforts. This year's disc starts with a carol from the cast of How to Succeed (including D. Radcliffe) and goes on to include offerings from the people of Memphis, Chicago, Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia!, Wicked, Catch Me If You Can, The Addams Family, Sister Act, Rent, Rock of Ages, Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Anything Goes, Avenue Q, Baby It's You! and Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark. War Horse, too. "Carols for a Cure" can be purchased in participating theatres in New York and elsewhere, or on the web from broadwaycares.org.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's Book Shelf and DVD Shelf columns. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)
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