Feinstein Channels Sinatra's Songs

(first published in The Cincinnati Enquirer July 9, 2012)

Michael Feinstein

It was 104⁰F at Riverbend Saturday afternoon.  By the opening of the Cincinnati Pops’ “Sinatra under the Stars” with Michael Feinstein Saturday night, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees and there was a gentle breeze.  Heat spell broken, it was possible to celebrate the Chairman of the Board in relative comfort.

Singer/pianist Feinstein, himself a show biz icon, is also an archivist and revivalist, with a mission to preserve the Great American Songbook.  For two mesmerizing hours he did just that by recalling one of its greatest exponents, Frank Sinatra.  Clad in suit and tie, he strode across the stage, mike in hand, banter at the ready, delivering his message with heart and pizzazz.  Led by conductor John Morris Russell, the Pops performed splendidly, perhaps beating the heat a bit in polo shirts.

Feinstein, 55, opened the show with “Luck, Be a Lady,” interleaving it with “All I Need Is the Girl,” to paint a vivid Sinatra image.  He did the same with standards such as “I Wanna Be Around,” a stinger enhanced by saxophonist Rick van Matre, and “What Kind of Fool Am I?” crooned softly at first to a soaring end.  A brilliant pianist (Feinstein began playing by ear at age 5), he frequently sang from the keyboard, as in “So Lucky to Be Loving You,” a mellow beauty with rhapsodic piano accompaniment.  He was piano soloist with the Pops in “Brazil” (there are international items in the American Songbook, he noted), ripping up and down the keys and mixing it up with Pops trumpeter Joey Tartell.

In remarks to the audience, Feinstein described how he met Sinatra as a fledgling cabaret pianist and how the breadth of his repertoire impressed the older man.  He relinquished the stage at one point to 16-year-old Nick Ziobro, winner of the 2012 Great American Songbook Vocal Academy Competition (sponsored by the Michael Feinstein Initiative).  Ziobro, now serving as Youth Ambassador for the Great American Songbook, nearly stole the show with beautifully paced renditions of “Here’s That Rainy Day” and “All of Me,” accompanied by pianist Sam Kriger.  He embellished “All of Me” with scat, to the delight of the audience.  Feinstein’s “Just One of Those Things” brought the first half to a soaring, carefree finish.

There was more gold after intermission with “Once in a Lifetime” and “It’s All Right With Me,” both deliberately and stylishly paced a la Sinatra.  In “Fly Me to the Moon,” Feinstein took a different tack, singing it as a soft-breathed ballad unlike Sinatra (composer Bart Howard preferred it gentle, Feinstein said).  Pops guitarist Timothy Berens and bassist Matt Zory provided a beautiful accompaniment. Conversely, Feinstein and the Pops performed Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” in 1950s Nelson Riddle swing style (Sinatra’s only recording is from the 1940s, he said).  As the fireflies came out, Feinstein recalled his last visit to Riverbend in June, 2002, the night his close friend Rosemary Clooney died.  He sang a tender, heartfelt “I Remember You” in tribute, then returned to the piano for “So in Love” with Russell and the Pops, filling it with passion and high drama.

Who had the greatest number of songs recorded by Sinatra?  It was Sammy Cahn, said Feinstein, demonstrating with “All My Tomorrows” and “All the Way,” which he sang sublimely from the piano, with Zory on bass.  His finale, “For Once in My Lifetime,” was sung with jazzy, all-stops-pulled affirmation with Russell and the Pops.

The crowd, which spilled out from the pavilion onto the Astro Turf-covered lawn, demanded more, and Feinstein and the Pops obliged with “The Lady is a Tramp” and in conclusion, “New York, New York,” where he climbed onto the grand piano for the final verse.