Michael Feinstein - vocals and Steinway piano; guitars - Grant Geissman, John Chiodini; piano - Alan Broadbeat, Thomas Lauderdale; bass - Dave Stone, Phil Baker, Kirk Smith ("All My Tomorrows/All The Way); drums - Ray Brinker, Martin Zarzar; maracas/bongo - Derek Rieth; saxophone/woodwinds - Jay Mason, Don Shelton, Jeff Driskill, Gene Cipriano, Phil Feather; trumpet - Wayne Bergeron, Darrel Gardner, Willie Murillo, Don Clarke, Gavin Bondy; trombone - Bruce Otto, Charles Loper, Charlie Morillas, Alan Kaplan, Robert Taylor; bass trombone - Craig Ware; Violin - Sharon Jackson, John Wittenberg, Julie Rogers, Gina Kronstadt, Sonya Lee, Josefina Vergara, Norman Hughes, Susan Chatman, Barbara Porter, Erika Walczak, Kathleen Robertson, Carolyn Osborn, Joy Fabos, Keiko Araki, Julie Coleman; viola - David Stenske, Andrew Picken, Charles Noble, Joel Belgique; cello - Larry Corbett, Rudolph Stein, Armen Ksajikian, Elizabeth Wright, Adam Essbensen; harp - Maureen Love
Review:
There are some artists who pass through the turnstiles of concert halls and never return, and then there is American Songbook connoisseur/classic jazz performer, Michael Feinstein, who has been going through concert halls doors for over three decades now. Feinstein's latest release, The Sinatra Project is as much a tribute to the legendary jazz singer Frank Sinatra as it is a platform for Feinstein's vocal prowess, displaying timbres that have the warmth of chestnuts roasting over a fireplace, and a suave gait reminiscent of a dancer's movements in the throes of an impassioned tango. His vocal melodies are smooth and clean, exuding a stage show pizazz that makes listeners want to shout for joy with Feinstein when he sings the Cole Porter classic, "At Long Last Love," and dance with him cheek-to-cheek in the George and Ira Gershwin standard, "I've Got A Crush On You." Produced by Bill Elliott, The Sinatra Project is an ambitious endeavor that does justice to the staples in Sinatra's repertoire and shows Feinstein's chops as a grand don of the American Songbook's singers.
The opening track, "Exactly Like You" is a plush, big band number with horns blazing into a brilliant maze of dazzling antebellums, while the soft fluid tempo of Rodgers and Hart's tune, "There's A Small Hotel" is spritzed in breezy brass flourishes along the chorus parts, whereas, a lustrous rim of wistful strings circle around "Fools Rush In," giving the tune beautiful flutters as if a ring of doves were haloing Feinstein's vocals. His duet with China Forbes in "How Long Will It Last" is gorgeous. Their vocals harmonize with a keen perception of each other's space, and for the emotions in the words of the song. Feinstein's vocals have such a gentleman-like hold on Forbes' silky vocal florets that their rendition of Joseph Meyer and Max Lief's tune has the potential of being the one that people will remember the most and the longest.
Feinstein weighs the album equally between cheek-to-cheek tunes like "You Go To My Head" and "All My Tomorrows/All The Way," and songs whose generators are blade by big band dynamics splashing up riffs along "The Song Is You" and Cole Porter's "It's All Right With Me." The Sinatra Project pays homage to some of the great tunes from the American Songbook, and gives Feinstein a chance to prove that he has the chops to make them his him.
Tracks: Exactly Like You (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields), There's A Small Hotel (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart), Fools Rush In (Rube Bloom, Johnny Mercer), The Song Is You (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II), The Same Hello, The Same Goodbye (John Williams, Alan & Marilyn Bergman), Begin The Beguine (Cole Porter), I've Got A Crush On You (George and Ira Gershwin), It's All Right With Me (Cole Porter), You Go To My Head (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie), How Long Will It Last (Joseph Meyer, Max Lief), All My Tomorrows/All The Way (Jimmy van Heusen, Sammy Cahn), At Long Last Love (Cole Porter)
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