A couple of years back, I read a book written by Michael
Feinstein called “The Gershwins and Me”. The Wall Street Journal had a review
of it and it sounded interesting and so I learned about Feinstein, who I’d
never heard of prior to that. Turns out that was a gap in my jazz and music
knowledge that I finally filled. Now Mr. Feinstein is traveling the country
with his “Sinatra Project”, which is basically a tribute concert to Frank
Sinatra to celebrate his one hundredth birthday (December 12). So, to Nashville
did Mrs. S and I go, to see Mr. Feinstein in person and enjoy an evening of
Frank Sinatra hits.
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| Feinstein in Primary Colors: Yellow |
Mr. Feinstein is a fascinating performer. He’s very
straightforward, almost like a club act, but there’s lot of audience
interaction. He asks a lot of trivia questions and he explains a lot about the
songs, the song writers, and the approaches that Frank took to some of the
songs. For instance, I didn’t know that Frank Sinatra recorded 88 of Sammy
Cahn’s songs. I also didn’t know that Sinatra didn’t professionally sing the
song, “What Kind of Fool Am I?” because he didn’t think he could do the song
justice. He said, he knew somebody who could, though, and told fellow Ratpacker
Sammy Davis Jr. to record it. It went on to become his greatest hit. (Mr.
Feinstein did a fine version of it as well.)
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| Feinstein in Primary Colors: Red |
For a few songs, Mr. Feinstein performed on the piano,
doing a great boogie-woogie imitation a la Liberace, complete with voices and,
shall we say, “Flamboyance”? And the Nashville symphony not only performed with
their usual panache and sensibility, but they also broke out the horn and
rhythm sections to do their best impression of a 17-piece jazz orchestra. And
I’ll tell you what, those horn players can blow. It’s like they’ve got the
symphony to pay the bills, but they’re really jazz musicians at heart.
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| Feinstein in Primary Colors: Blue |
My only complaint is that the Nashville Symphony needs to
get their signals straight on whether photography is permitted or not and what
sort of devices are acceptable or not. The usher in our (front and center,
thank you very much) section said we could take pictures all we wanted, as long
as we didn’t shoot video, record sound, or use flash. So of course, Mrs. S went
hog wild taking pictures. Then as we’re going back to our seats after
intermission, an usher in the upper section stopped her and asked her about her
“professional” camera. We basically said, don’t be dumb lady, but between that,
and the other usher, and the “Photography permitted while house lights are up”
statement on the tickets, it’s all very confusing. And don’t get me started
about the idiots with their phone flashing and shooting in the balconies above
the stage.
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| Feinstein in Primary Colors (Variation): Sedensky in White Jack O'Lantern Motif |
Still,
it was a pleasure to see Mr. Feinstein in concert, to hear some of his
fascinating stories, and to hear the immortal music made famous by Frank
Sinatra. I’d come fly with Feinstein again, anytime.
