Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording [Hardcover]

Charles L. Granata (Author), Nancy Sinatra (Afterword), Phil Ramone (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Frank Sinatra was not only the greatest popular singer of the century—he was also the ultimate recording artist. In addition to introducing and perfecting a unique vocal style, he was also his own in-studio producer—personally supervising every aspect of his recordings, from choosing the songs and arrangers to making minute adjustments in mike placement. One of the thrills of listening to Sinatra is wondering how he did it—and this book explains it all, bringing the dedicated fan and the casual music lover alike into the recording studio to glimpse the fascinating working methods he introduced and mastered in his quest for recorded perfection. Featuring 100 photographs of Sinatra working with orchestras and arrangers, listening to playbacks, and, of course, singing, Sessions with Sinatra tells the whole story of how he created the Sinatra sound and translated the most intense personal emotions into richly worked-out songs of unrivalled expressiveness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Granata, producer and director of Sinatra's Columbia recordings, offers a rare glimpse into the work that went into making the Sinatra sound. He covers all the technical details, from Sinatra's early pioneering of the microphone as instrument to transcripts of his many studio directions and casual late-night jokes. Granata summarizes the major recording eras in Sinatra's career, from the Columbia years (1943-1952) to his Duets work in the mid-1990s with singers such as Bono and Chrissie Hynde. With a foreword by adoring sound engineer Ramone and afterword by Nancy Sinatra, this testimony to Sinatra's studio time is weakened only by its unwavering homage. But much can be read between the lines. What is said (Sinatra is quoted, "You can never do anything in life quite on your own.... Making a record is as near as you can get to it") and what can be extrapolated (Sinatra did not, perhaps, appreciate the debt owed to songwriters, musicians, producers and arrangers) can make for good reading. Late in the book, Granata confesses, "Sinatra's personal relationships with the musicians were complex.... Maybe Sinatra feared the old adage, 'Familiarity breeds contempt.'" It's evident throughout that Sinatra asserted his ideas and ego masterfully, creating his unique sound and image with an iron will. Those who enjoyed Bill Zehme's book on Sinatra's style, The Way You Wear Your Hat, will welcome this look at the technique, skills and behind-the-scenes action involved in one of the longest, most successful singing careers in U.S. history. 100 photographs. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

For all the mountains of verbiage expended on Frank Sinatras personality during his life and since his death, very little has been written about Sinatra as a singer and recording artist. Granata, who has had access to all the extant unedited tapes of Sinatra's hundreds of sessions in the studio, ably fills that gap here. Granata is project director of the massive re-release of Sinatra's Columbia recordings; his essay in Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture (1998) was singled out for praise in reviews of that collection, and provided a foretaste of this longer study of Sinatra as singer and musician. As he points out, Sinatra's career coincided with several important developments in the technology of sound recording, spanning nearly seven decades from the era of wax master recordings to the digitally recorded compact disc. Sinatra sang through the big band era to the post-modern post-rock era, from mono to stereo, from lacquer and shellac to magnetic tape. As a result, this erudite but lucid volume comprises not merely a history of Sinatra's career but also a crash course in the developing story of preserving music in recordings. Granata, who never lets you forget that Sinatra was a supremely gifted musician, includes interviews with dozens of the men and women who worked with him in the studio, illustrating his working methods. The result is a truly musical biography that charts the most important part of Sinatra's legacy, his singing. If you can only buy one Sinatra bookafter you've bought all the hundreds of records or CDsthis is the one to have. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556523564
• ISBN-13: 978-1556523564
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( S ) > Sinatra, Frank

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sessions with Sinatra" is Superb!, December 11, 1999

By 

"franksoprano" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording (Hardcover)

Charles Granata's "Sessions with Sinatra"is amazingly the first book to take you into the recording studio with the century's finest popular singer.

Spanning the RCA-Dorsey era, through "Duets," Granata has interviewed arrangers, musicians, producers and engineers and goes behind the scenes into the actual recording of such classic albums as "Only the Lonely," "Songs for Swinging Lovers," "Sinatra-Basie" etc (little known fact:Jobim wasn't the only guitarist to play on the Sinatra-Jobim LP.)

"Sessions with Sinatra" is not only a must for any serious Sinatra fan, but for any student of America's pop musical history.

"Sessions with Sinatra" read back to back with Kitty Kelly's "His Way," might give one a fascinating portrait of both the man and the musician.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The center of 20th century popular music..., June 23, 2000

By 

Jon Warshawsky "Sinatra Guru" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording (Hardcover)

Granata does a great job taking us behind the scenes for the technology and people who brought us the best popular music of the century. The photos, which focus on the studio instead of the amply documented night life theme, are probably worth the price of the book, but the author is an expert in recording technology and provides anecdotes and discussion as to how and why Sinatra had such an impact and continues to make his mark.

Because we take it for granted today, it is easy to forget that the way in which recordings were created had much to do with the kind of music that was recorded. Granata notes one occasion on which a perfect take had to be remade because a three-and-a-half minute song was too long for Columbia's equipment at the time. What stands out, though, is that for all the bad press Sinatra gets for his impatience on movie sets, he clearly managed the recording process down to the minutest details during the Columbia and Capitol years, resulting in a degree of musical excellence that was not exceeded even during the technologically more advanced 1960s Reprise era. Granata gets high marks for explaining all of this in a way that is highly readable for those of us who love music and have limited understanding of engineering concepts.

The most fascinating chapter may well be the one dealing with a nadir of Sinatra's career, the Duets project of 1992/3. Throughout, we learn that Phil Ramone was constantly selling the project to the singer, while FS (to his credit) continually called the whole purpose of the project into question. If you think Duets sounds like a mistake, you should read this account of how Sinatra was pushed into making these pale remakes from his legendary songbook.

Also worthwhile is Granata's recommended recording list in the appendix. If you are a new Frankophile, this is a great place to start and will lend additional meaning to the text, because you can HEAR how FS works the voice and lyrics in Ol' Man River and other classics.

Highly recommended, even if you already have Friedwald's excellent 'The Song is You.'

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, January 28, 2000

By 

Jeff B Sultanof - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording (Hardcover)

No book has ever captured the experience of a recording session and the recording experience like Charles Granata. Long known as an authority of Frank Sinatra's work, this book actually conveys why Sinatra's recordings are classic and still speak to us. Granata's viewpoints are fair and, in the case of the controversial Mitch Miller recordings, as balanced as a writer can be in presenting all sides of the story. His interviews with such under-appreciated musicians such as arranger George Siravo ( who contributed far more to the canon of Frank Sinatra than most people realize) are particularly valuable. I am delighted that he has quoted extensively from Nelson Riddle's arranging book (which I edited for publication), which has much valuable information about how Nelson worked with Sinatra. The history of the recording field, rare photos and even reproductions of score pages simply make this a must-have volume.