Customer Reviews

I Thought About You

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The first time that I ever saw Frank Dain perform, in a small Manhattan club in 1996, I was struck by the immediacy of his presentation and the warm, emotionally honest quality of his singing. Those same qualities are no less evident on Dain's new CD, on which he revisits some of the great standards. Dain's singing, with the quicksilver fluttering of his vibrato and the laser precision of his crisp phrasing, draws the listener in, quickening his pulse and rekindling long dormant feelings. The throaty catch in his voice may conjure Johnny Mathis, but the vocal magic is all his own. But if Dain's singing is impassioned, it is also finely controlled. He is never maudlin, never overstated. His performances are distinguished by an IMPLIED burst of emotion that makes each song crackle with energy and tension. The emotional floodgates may be ready to burst, but Dain astutely manages to keep those feelings at bay. That he can convey a wellspring of such feeling without overselling his material is a testament to his interpretive talents. His repertoire here is a fine collection of great standards like "The Way You Look Tonight," "Night and Day," "You Go to My Head," "It Never Was You," and the title track. His pairing of "All the Things You Are" and "The Nearness of You" fits like a hand in glove. Even better is his blending of Don MacLean's "Empty Chairs" with Rodgers and Hart's "It Never Entered My Mind," with Dain mining two songs written decades apart to convey the utter disbelief of a man suddenly confronted with the dissolution of a relationship. Dain's hypnotic, evocative rendering of "When I Look in Your Eyes" belies its origin in (of all things) Leslie Bricusse's score for the movie DOCTOR DOLITTLE. Rick Jensen's "In Passing Years" is a distillation of the importance of deep friendships as a constant in our lives. Produced by Jeff Waxman and Rick Jensen (who also serves as Dain's arranger and musical director), and co-produced by Lisa Asher (the director of Dain's live shows, and a fine singer in her own right, with a CD called LET THE MYSTERY BE), the CD finds Dain with distinctive but unobtrusive instrumental accompaniment, including Jensen on piano, Dave Phillips on bass, Peter Calo on guitar, Rex Benincasa on drums/percussion, and Wendy Sutter on cello. Jack Bashkow's alto sax, English horn and flute nicely augment Dain's performance of the Edward Heyman/Johnny Green classic "I Cover the Waterfront." The Dain vocal instrument has seldom shone as brightly as it does as presented here. If you want to hear material from the great American songbook, or some newer songs that prove that they DO still write them like they used to, delivered in a voice that recalls a time when hushed singing drew lovers closer together, pick up a copy of Frank Dain's I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU.

Cabaret performer Frank Dain has a warm intensity in his voice that suits the romantic nature of the songs here, including "Night and Day," "You Go to My Head," and particularly "It Never Was You." I'm not a fan of combining two songs to make a dramatic statement, but Dain makes a strong case for his pairing of Empty Chairs" (Don McLean) and "It Never Entered My Mind." Ballads predominate, but Dain and arranger/musical director Rick Jensen swing gently, but persuasively, in the exceptional "I Thought About You." I haven't had this one off my CD player for the last week.