Sat 7/18
The evening was warm, the crickets in full voice, the pavilion almost filled, the lawn covered with bodies, blankets, bottles and baskets. Sounds wafted from the big band musicians and melodic words from a pleasant spoken and sung voice were entertaining and educating. The program was “Michael Feinstein: A Big Band Tribute to Frank Sinatra” at beautiful Blossom Center.
Diminutive Michael Feinstein’s musical career started at age 5 in Columbus, Ohio. The young Michael started to play piano by ear, developed into a piano bar celeb, came to New York, was introduced to Ira Gershwin, lyricist for “I Got Rhythm,” “Love Is Here to Stay,” and “’Swonderful,” became his assistant for six years, met the elite of the music business and transformed himself into “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook.”
Feinstein has transcribed, arranged, catalogued and performed a vast collection of American musical standards. His personal connection with such musical greats as Rosemary Clooney, Sammy Davis Jr., Cole Porter and Liza Minnelli opened the door to a knowledge of music that turned him into an anthropologist and archivist. In 2007 he founded the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative, dedicated to celebrating the art musical form and preserving it through educational programs and competitions, and making the songs available to the public. Feinstein is also a song stylist who presents over 200 shows each year.
You don’t go to a Feinstein concert to hear imitations of the singers whose songs he presents, but to hear the compositions presented in the style of those artists. You don’t go expecting a performer who captivates the audience like Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler or Edina Menzel. You go to hear a pleasant evening of personal tales, revealing information, and classic songs.
At his Blossom concert, Feinstein revealed how he met and became friends with “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” and how Sinatra was instrumental in expanding the young man’s musical contacts and told personal stories about the man who is considered to be one of the greatest interpreters of American songs.
Starting with “Luck Be a Lady” from the musical, Guys and Dolls, and continuing with probably Sinatra’s signature tune “New York, New York,” the evening flowed easily from song to song, from tale to tale. There was humor, pathos, name dropping and a little gossip.
Songs included “Time After Time,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” which was written as a waltz, but was reinterpreted by Sinatra, and “It’s Alright With Me.” Other songs were “Just One of Those Things,” which Feinstein said Sinatra viewed as the saddest lyric ever written, and “Night and Day, “one of the great man’s favorites. Other tunes performed were “Someday,” “My Kind of Town,” written specifically for Sinatra by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for inclusion in the film Robin and the Seven Hoods, and “Fools Rush In,” the kind of song which was sung with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. “All the Way” was followed by a medley of songs from the Sinatra songbook including “Come Fly With Me,” “It’s Witchcraft,” and “I’ve Got the World on a String.”
The appreciative crowd gave Feinstein a much-deserved standing ovation and left humming their favorite song from the encyclopedia of music they had just heard.
Future Blossom pop presentations include:
Broadway Divas, a program featuring songs from Wicked, Les Miz, Cabaret, My Fair Lady and Chicago. (Sun 8/2)
The British Invasion: The Music of the Beatles, The Stones, The Who and more. (Sun 8/16)
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Sat 8/29)
[Written by Roy Berko] [Photo by Gilles Toucas]Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223