Customer Reviews

The Concert Sinatra

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Concert Sinatra" is an under-appreciated artistic gem in the Sinatra canon that is an absolutely essential purchase for all serious Sinatraphiles. It is a spare, eight-song collection of Broadway showtunes, six of them by Richard Rogers. It illustrates as no other Sinatra album does what The Chairman was capable of when he stretched his artistic limits. Sinatra's brilliant interpretation of "Ol'Man River" is the definitive version of a song that forces Sinatra to display his amazing breath control and the full power and range of his rich, sensual baritone. I feel like Frank is speaking to me reassuringly when he puts his heart and soul into "You'll Never Walk Alone." Nelson Riddle must have been Sinatra's musical soul-mate because his arrangements and brilliant orchestrations perfectly complement Sinatra's voice. I only wish that there would have been more "artistic concept" albums like this one. It's an absolute treasure that simply further validates the genius of the greatest vocalist of all time.

This 1963 album has the style and scope of a command performance. The album photo recalls "Sinatra's Swingin' Session" of three years earlier, but the singer seems more focused, his phrasing more determined, as his versions of these songs may be definitive. In most cases, they are: "Soliloquy," which Frank performed on his 80th birthday live album, is essentially a three-act, one-man dramatic musical. Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I Have Dreamed," and "This Nearly Was Mine" fit perfectly with his classic 50s "blue" albums, also arranged by Nelson Riddle. And "Ol' Man River" is unique: a white singer singing a black work song written by white composers without one ounce of condescension or irony. This may not be Sinatra's greatest album (although it comes close), but it is certainly his most dramatic and empathetic, and highly recommended.

A friend asked today, "If you could keep only ONE of his albums, which one goes with you to the proverbial desert island?" The short answer is, "This one." But a big ocean of memories will surround that island.

---

Back when I was just six years old, I attended my best friend David Pearce's birthday party, and his mother -- a widow, who I can remember thinking was so beautiful -- took out a picture of little David's late father and told us boys how she'd married on the "Day of Infamy." (Much later I'd learn that was the term used by President FDR for December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was hit, launching American involvement in WWII). Then Mrs. Pearce told us that "Frank Sinatra, you don't know him, was always our favorite singer." I remember feeling honored, at that moment----in some way that my six year old heart could never express in words---that she would share with us that photograph, and her memories of David's late father. And then, speaking to me alone (as the other boys at the party gravitated towards David's new toys) Mrs. Pearce told me in a soft voice: "Frank Sinatra is the greatest singer, Mark. Maybe someday you'll agree with me." Then she put on one of his records---something from the first Capitol album of 1953 (how I wish with all my heart that I could recall which song she selected---but I do remember listening, dutifully, and feeling very much like a big man who was seeing eye-to-eye with this beautiful woman who was treating me like an adult.
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I grew up in a musically literate home, with loving (and very musical) parents who once saw a live performance by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey's band in July of 1940 (at Toronto's "Canadian National Exhibition"----a sort of glorified `state fair' in Canada's largest city). My parents had no Frank Sinatra LPs from the 1950s (only one or two old "Columbia" 78s from the late 1940s). Dad gave Mom two Nat Cole LPs in the 60s, including one arranged by Gordon Jenkins---my Mom's favorite singer and her favorite arranger, right up until her death three years ago.

My parents always took us to see "Broadway" musicals as performed locally, (in my hometown of Ottawa Canada) and eventually---in 1960---they took us to see the "real thing"----I remember being told that the theatre house lights were being dimmed all over Broadway that very night because Oscar Hammerstein had just died. Mom told me "He's the greatest lyricist, Mark" suggesting (like Mrs. Pearce) that one day, perhaps when I was older, I might agree with her.

On that same visit to NYC I remember stepping off an elevator in the Plaza Hotel, and my father immediately telling me "that man there, you just rode in the elevator with is Richard Rodgers" (who would one day be my favorite composer). But as with beautiful Mrs. Pearce trying to introduce me to Frank Sinatra, I just "wasn't ready" to appreciate greatness.

----

It was on a January day just this one -- twelve years ago -- that I returned home from work to hear words from my wife that I'd been aching to hear: "You got a letter from Frank Sinatra."

I remember taking off my winter coat and boots, and stumbling into another room where I could be alone, making sure my hands were clean, and getting a bright reading light, and carefully opening the envelope and reading the note and re-reading it (ten times? twenty times?).

I remember being overcome with emotion, saying to myself, "Do you realize what an honor you've just received? This is from someone who, early in his career, received letters like mine numbering 3,000 a week! Do you appreciate that he took the time---perhaps ten minutes of his life---to read your two-page letter, and then compose this signed response-you-hold-in-your-hands? Do you realize what this is? The greatest musical entertainer of the Twentieth Century is telling you personally--- "I greatly appreciate your interest in my music" and "it was so nice of you to take the time to write."

With an extra decade of immersing myself in Frank Sinatra's greatness, I'd have to say that only a "religious experience" --- and a glimpse of Eternity---could ever surpass what I feel in my heart, the sheer exhilarating joy I experience, when I listen for example, to "My Heart Stood Still" (my favorite of these). There is the high plateau where the singer and his great collaborator Nelson Riddle have their true, "shining hour." At that defining moment in 1963, the arranger conducts his finest orchestrations, with the largest symphony orchestra ever assembled in Hollywood---as the singer on a mountain peak of vocal greatness, performs his favorite songs by his (and my) favorite composer. For me personally that is the `coming-together-of-a-lifetime,' ----all the peak emotions of memory, from Mrs. Pearce, to Rodgers & Hammerstein, to Nelson Riddle---a lifetime's worth of emotion, bringing me tears of joy each time I hear it. (These days, the experience is rationed to perhaps once a month, and then just a cut or two at a time, so as to preserve the experience----I want to `spread it out' over the rest of my life, if I can.)

----
In the final paragraph of my letter 12 years ago, I told Frank Sinatra how I'd "discovered your enduring greatness somewhat late in life. But perhaps that's why I appreciate you the more now.

"Thanks then, for being you, is all I want to say. The world would be a poorer place if you'd never passed this way. And I think, after six decades of your work, without anyone surpassing your greatness, I guess it's safe to say `We'll never know your like again.' Best wishes for a long and healthy life.

Sincerely,

Mark Blackburn

Winnipeg

It's hard to not give this cd 5 stars, but then we're dealing with Sinatra and Riddle who, at times, did better. (For any other singer this would get 6 stars.)

It needs to be emphasized at the outset (and this has nothing to do with my rating) that this is not a "Live" recording. In fact, it's not even promoted by Reprise as a live recording. That dubious distinction was pushed by someone at Amazon who apparently misunderstood the concept of what the title meant. This is a "studio" work so those of you who shy away from "live" performances, don't worry, this will not disappoint.

So to what does the title refer? First, these are 8 tunes from Broadway shows that do not fit the typical mold of the "32 bar Broadway pop song". (Yes, a few are in that form but with songs like "Old Man River" there is a lot more going on.) Most of these tunes could be categorized as "art songs" or "arias" in that they were meant to be affective within the show and never meant to be "hit" songs outside the theater, even though most achieved that status anyway.

Second, the arrangements by the master (Nelson Riddle) are not limited to the comercial 3:00-minutes-or-less requirement of radio djs. One of the cuts is over 8 minutes in length and two others go over 4 minutes. They also don't always fit the format of the standard 1 1/2 to 2 choruses with the orchestra starting the second chorus of most Sinatra/Riddle efforts. All of the songs go where they "need" to go; Sinatra lets the orchestra do more, and Riddle gives Sinatra more room to work.

Third, the orchestra itself is of "Symphonic" proportions, and Riddle handles it as such. There are still "rhythm" moments and "saloon" moments when needed, but this orchestra allows the artists to expand well beyond their traditional fare.

Fourth, the actual team work between the two is probably the best they ever accomplished. There are lots of rubatos because we aren't being tyrannized by "the beat". If you want to dance or cry to Sinatra there are plenty of choices, but this isn't one of them.

Fifth, Sinatra's voice is allowed to cover the widest range of pitches and emotions of nearly his entire career; and, by my ear, his voice is in top notch form. No, it isn't the silky tenor voice of the Columbia years, but when you put it all together - the phrasings, the dynamics, the emotions, and the tone colors - this is clearly Sinatra at his best.

So why not 5 stars? First, there could have been more tracks. There was room, and there were choices. Personally I'd like to have included "September Song", and other reviewers have suggested others. But what's here is all good, with "Lost in the Stars" and "I Have Dreamed" hitting the top of my personal list.

Second, Riddle (who was the best), took the concert concept a little too literally. Almost every song has a "big finish" the way Hollywood producers would insist on when they were trying to "sell art" in the 30s and 40s. After a while it get's a little tiring. When you're Nelson Riddle and you have Frank Sinatra there's no need to try to impress, these two WERE the essence of American art.

This is a must for any Sinatra collection, it's one of the times he "experimented" and the experiment worked. Overall there were superior albums; just keep in mind that the worst thing Sinatra ever did was better than the best of most others.

Awhile back, I participated in a discussion entitled "Albums That Are Truly An Experience To Listen To." Though I had not yet heard it when I first participated in the discussion, "The Concert Sinatra" lands pretty close to the top of that list.

It is impossible to listen to this album and not be astounded by what you're hearing, from the strength of Frank's voice (stronger than any record he ever made before or after) to the depth and drama of Nelson Riddle's arrangements to the sheer beauty of the material itself (some of the finest American ever composed, both lyrically and musically), it is, from start to finish, a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

There's not one song on this album that fails to impress the listener. Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I Have Dreamed" kicks off the album in grand fashion, and is the most beautiful song Frank ever recorded, given a lush, romantic arrangement by Riddle and a tender yet powerful reading by The Chairman.

Rogers and Hart's "My Heart Stood Still" starts off quietly and slowly escalates into an intense and ultimate triumphant climax that will leave you breathless (and probably Frank as well, had he not been blessed with such amazing breath control.)

"Lost In The Stars" is an incredibly powerful number, and if the lyrics (and Frank's second to none interpretation of them) leave you unmoved, then you may want to check if you're really human, as is this is one of the most touching, almost haunting songs I've ever heard.

Next comes a song that may well be the single greatest piece of music Frank ever recorded. Yes, "Ol' Man River" may be sung from the perspective of a black slave, and the idea of rich white man who never experienced the horrors of slavery singing this song may have been seen as either inane or offensive back then, but wait until you hear it. Frank scales every peak and plumbs every emotional depth worth plumbing on this recording, his voice escalating with passion and intensity right to the finale, which features his most stunning vocal moment ever: when Frank sings "And ya lands in jail.........," Franks hit his lowest not ever, and holds it for over 10 seconds, and then without catching a breath dives into the finale, and he nails the final note with all the glory and triumph of a Civil War - era slave achieving his exodus.

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is uplifting and grand, but it's Rogers & Hart's "Bewitched" that scores the next highlight, with a dreamy and romantic reading by Frank and yet another Nelson Riddle gem of an arrangement.

"This Was Nearly Mine" is haunting, but the closing "Soliloquy" is another masterpiece that shows off Frank's narrative skills brilliantly. He nails each section of this three act musical play about a down and out father anticipating his first child.

"The Concert Sinatra" is a shining moment in Frank Sinatra's career and an essential purchase for any true music fan.

Sinatra's earlier Reprise albums are right up there with his classic Capital works. The Concert Sinatra, a collection of show tunes (dramatic pieces with their share of bravado), is one of the better ones. It's only about 30 minutes long, but The Chairman is in perfect voice and ideal for this material. Ol' Man River is very moving; You'll Never Walk Alone is treasurable, and Soliloquoy (8 minutes long!) is wonderful.

Not a swing album by any means, but strongly recommended, especially in remastered release. If I owned the vinyl version I would have worn it out a while ago.

This is among Sinatra's best work, one of his finest recordings. His voice is in excellent shape- very rich and strong. This version of "Ol Man River" is THE version to hear. Nelson Riddle's arrangements are fabulous, complimenting Sinatra's voice perfectly. They are also possibly the most dramatic I have heard from Mr. Riddle. The album was originally released in late May, 1963. Get this CD, if you don't have it already. You'll really enjoy it.

This is a really interesting album ... an unusual album even. Back in 1963 Frank eschewed the saloon titles, love songs and swing'n hits that made him a giant and grabbed four sound stages at the Goldwyn Studio in Hollywood to lay down this 8 track record -- cut from the heart of Broadway's finest composers/lyricists.

Four tracks from Rodgers and Hammerstein, a couple from Rodgers and his earlier partner Lorenz Hart ... one song from Hammerstein and Kern (one from a pair that I'd not heard of before -- Anderson and Weill).

Though the track list is somewhat less approachable than the swing'n pop numbers that made him so popular, the 1963 Reprise Records release of The Concert Sinatra was critically acclaimed for showing off Frank's vocal control, unique intonation, Nelson Riddle's masterful but unusually orchestral arrangements and amazing (for the time) recording technology.

After Concord did such a fabulous job with the re-master of the Sinatra-Basie studio recordings (VS review at vocalstandards.com), I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Concert Sinatra/Remastered and Expanded. Passed though the same engineering team as the Sinatra-Basie LP, I was hopeful this effort would render a similarly impressive result. Well ...

It just goes to show...

...that digital remastering and audio engineering is an inexact science -- a black art. Apply the same magic audio juju to different recordings and you can get vastly differing results. This axiom is proven true with this remastered release.

I don't know if the elaborate recording methods Reprise used at the Goldwyn Studio in '63 (24 microphones and super high output film*) did not lend themselves to the digital remastering process as well as the Sinatra-Basie studio sessions clearly did ... or if the 50 year old original tape no longer held enough data to work with ... all I know is the 2012 remastered edition has issues that send me back to the original recording (2009 CD release) when I want to listen to this unusual and beautiful material from Sinatra.

The main problem with the remaster for me is Frank's vocal track. Again, UNLIKE the Sinatra-Basie 2011 remaster, this attempt seems to thin out (maybe "flatten" is a better term for it), and over tighten Frank's vocals for the sake of ... clarity I guess.

For you photo buffs, it's like sharpening a photograph during post processing in the pursuit of enhanced contrast and ending up with an image that is over-crisp.

In this case Frank's vocals just seem a bit over bright and crisp throughout The Concert Sinatra / [Remastered & Expanded] -- manifesting in exaggerated "S" sounds and a ... "thinning brightness" is the best way I can describe it.

I really was taken back by this outcome after BluWave Audio's stellar Sinatra-Basie rendering, so I spent the better part of three days listening and comparing in detail the original 1963 LP vs. the 2012 remaster ... a variety of volume levels, headphones, small room stereo system listening, full up studio speaker music room listening ... they all left me in the same place with this release -- not good.

Hey, "listening" is an inherently personal process and I'm not saying this album sucks. I am saying that Frank's vocal track is distinctively different from the original material; that difference is not well received by my listening ear.

The goal of any re-mastering attempt should be to reach for noticeable improvement, but regardless of achieving that goal the process should do no harm and sadly in my opinion they did not meet that test in this case.

That said, the original album track list is awesome!

Frank Sinatra in his prime with an incredible 70+ musician orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle ... I know what you're saying. "yeah, yeah I've heard Frank and NR together before." ... but they hit a different stride here that is again -- unique.

The track list (below) is pure broadway ... at least the original eight tracks off the 1963 release. We'll talk about the "bonus tracks" in a bit.

These classic stage pieces come to Frank and Nelson asking for something special and they deliver in full measure with wonderfully intoned and controlled vocals that interleave perfectly -- hand-in-glove -- with Riddle's lush arrangements ... a passion play performance for them both.

I could not say it better myself...

In the liner notes from the '63 Reprise release, Lawrence D. Stewart "sells" the unique aspect of this record and the exploratory approach we should bring to the listening:

"... And then we listen and we hear a new Sinatra, set to some of the purest arrangements we have ever heard. And suddenly several well-known songs become not well-known at all. The frisson of discovery, the chilling thrill, the impulse felt in the blood and felt along the heart, the revolutionary moment of seeing the familiar in an unfamiliar way... "

"The Concert Sinatra presents the best-known voice of our time in a new achievement of artistic purity and control..."

Stewart's liner notes are not to be missed. He writes beautifully and his detailed dive into the track list is great stuff. I will not replicate his work here, but I definitely have a few favorite songs off the list worth noting.

All eight of the original songs are tremendous efforts...

...but my particular favorites start right up front. Frank opens the album with "I Have Dreamed" -- a wonderful rhapsodic ballad from The King And I that has always been a favorite of mine ... Frank's control and range on full display. "Ol' Man River" and "My Heart Stood Still" are superb but the last four original tracks are where the gold is for me on this record.

"You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, "Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered)", and the hauntingly tragic but beautiful "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific are truly best of class Sinatra/Riddle numbers.

"Soliloquy (My Boy Bill)" is Frank at his vocal best with Nelson weaving the string charts and orchestral arrangements around the shifting pace and drama beautifully. "Soliloquy" has always been a Sammy Davis Jr. number for me (I think this is a result of hearing it for the first time off Sammy's Yes I Can compendium album), but Frank wrests it onto neutral ground in my book with his The Concert Sinatra performance.

Un-necessary Expansion...

So, Frank and Nelson recorded a couple of non-Broadway songs at the Goldwyn soundstage sessions that were left off the original '63 release. They find their way on to the 2012 re-issue as bonus tracks. I understand the rationale for adding "California" and "America, The Beautiful" to the re-release -- being a part of the original recording session -- but thematically they are a jarring appendage to the dramatic stage tune array of the original release.

Good renditions both but the choir sections in each song kill the Sinatra buzz for me ... again, these are supreme Sinatra/Riddle recordings, and I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but these songs really do not fit well on this LP.

The net/net...

The Concert Sinatra ('63) is a wonderfully different taste of the fine feast that is Sinatra & Riddle. Sadly the 2012 re-issue does not improve on the original recordings laid down 50 years ago ... and in fact, my listening ear "sees" it headed in the wrong direction.

The "bonus tracks" are a jarring and unwelcome addition ... sadly the net/net on The Concert Sinatra / [Remastered & Expanded]
is a "pass" recommendation. Stick with the '63 recording.

Again, I find this incredibly sad after the fine job Concord/BluWave Audio did with the Sinatra-Basie sessions, but this time around the result was not a good one.

Track List...

(VS_Guy ratings: "+++" pluses are good; "~" for meh to middling; "- - -" minuses are not good ... the ratings on tracks 1-8 are based on the 1963 release/2009 CD)

The Concert Sinatra (Reprise 1963 - reissued Concord, 2012)

I Have Dreamed +++
My Heart Stood Still ++
Lost in the Stars +
Ol' Man River ++
You'll Never Walk Alone +++
Bewitched ++
This Nearly Was Mine +++
Soliloquy ++++
------------ Bonus Tracks (of a sort) ----------
California ~
America, The Beautiful ++ (beautiful indeed ... just not thematically aligned to this LP)
* There is a bunch of detail on the original 1963 recording methods and process in the liner notes of both the '63 (2009 CD) and 2012 re-issue, expanded release.

This was one of my dad's favorite records, and listening to it brings back memories of Sunday afternoons coming back from church and eating my Mom's Meat Loaf. We would have this playing on a huge console record player. My favorite song was "Soliloqy" from Carousel, because at one point in the song, Frank has to pause, and say: "What the hell?" Being is was part of a song, I was able to say it, even though "hell" was considered a swear word in our house. Boy, how times have changed.
The music is timeless. Old Man River brings Frank to the lowest and highest notes in his range. You'll Never Walk Alone is much better than you'll ever hear Jerry Lewis at the end of a telethon, and the aforemention "Soliloqy" is a masterpiece.
This is Sinatra at his best.

The arrangements on this CD are all wonderful, and Sinatra has moments of vocal greatness. Listen to the 8 or so slow bars he holds acapella in low bass range on one breath before building "Ol' Man River" to one of Riddle/Sinatra's finest climaxes. "My heart stood still" is the warrior-with-a-conscience tale, under the last line of which Riddle creates the most beautiful aural sequence of the record. However, this is not Sinatra's best. Sinatra's early sixties' recordings (great ones) with Basie, and especially the 1966 masterpiece "Live at the Sands" show Sinatra's voice tightening and showing much more of FS' ratpack native New Joisey accent. However, on the ballads on Sands, and the superlative "with edward k. ellington" and "...with Antonio Carlos Jobim" albums, he manages to get back the timeless phrasing of his late 50's "Only the Lonely" or "Swingin' Lovers" masterpieces. My only complaint is how he imbues "Lost in the Stars" in particular with a sort of barroom style at its start. However, nitpicking aside, the musical acting here is a clinic. On Soliliqouy, that New Jersey tough-guy accent is what makes the song sell completely. One only regrets that the Riddle-Sinatra pair didn't expand their art song book and go on the road with a major Symphony orchestra. I guess some things would just be too good to ever come true.