The Valley Line: Pasadena Pops pays tribute to Frank Sinatra
I think my eyes are about to fall out of my head from watching so many of the Olympic events on TV. I don’t think I’ve missed even one butterfly stroke in the pool or a gymnastic uneven bar routine.
Anyway, I was definitely ready to switch over to the track and field events – just show me some fast runners, high jumpers and javelin throwers!
Of course I have loved watching all the side events such as cultural stories of Brazil and its fabulous foods.
As I mentioned in an earlier column, I still have lots of cousins who live in Brazil, but I have never gone there to visit their country.
My favorite uncle, Bob Fye (my mother’s side of the family) would bring his family to visit us each year. They lived in Rio de Janeiro and we thought they lived such a glamorous lifestyle.
What I loved the most during their visits was learning new Portuguese words. Uncle Bob and his wife, Kashy, would bring their two kids Lisa and Ben, who were about my same age.
Best of all they would bring phonograph records of their favorite music with them. Therefore, I heard the Bossa Nova greats Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto and the Brazilian sound way before it ever became the craze in the U.S.
My cousins would also teach me and my two sisters the dances they were doing. Of course their favorite was the samba. We had our own kind of cultural exchange when we would roll up the rugs and make a fashionable Rio club-like dance floor right in our California Craftsman living room!
Speaking of music, the Pasadena Pops orchestra enchanted more than 5,000 people at the L.A. County Arboretum on a recent night when principal Pops conductor Michael Feinstein honored Frank Sinatra and his music, with Larry Blank conducting the world-class orchestra.
Sinatra embraced the soft, easy Brazilian sound himself. He even collaborated with Jobim on an album called “Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim.”
I don’t think that Sinatra lovers would ever be able to forget his renditions of “The Girl from Ipanema,” “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars,” or “Meditation.” Feinstein certainly reprised this Bossa Nova sound beautifully at the concert.
On this particular night of quiet stars, even the Arboretum’s peacocks were also paying tribute to Feinstein and Sinatra by remaining silent.
Bossa Nova was not the only music Feinstein played from Frank Sinatra’s playlist. This maestro covered it all from swing to slow.
The concert — from the seated guests at tables in the front or way back of the venue where people brought their own chairs and blankets to picnic from, the orchestra can be heard and enjoyed. It is such a joyful way to listen to music presented by an exceptional orchestra.
In the crowd I spotted valleyites Lorie MacKenzie, Kay Davis, Charlie Kenny and Mary Pinola, George and Annsley Strong, Jo and John Loomis, Ella Selders, Marijane Hebert, Jeanne Walston, Richard Adair, Barbara and Jack Dawson, Jeanette and Warren Martin, Wynn and Bob DeVelle, Annette and Michael Madden, Jill Wondries and Paula Clinanan.
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JANE NAPIER NEELY covers the La Cañada Flintridge social scene. Email her at jnvalleysun@aol.com with news of your special event.