Feinstein to sing the hits of Ol’ Blue Eyes
Pianist and singer Michael Feinstein, renowned keeper and interpreter of the Great American Songbook, has proven himself to be an expressive and deft leader of the band, too, since succeeding the late Marvin Hamlisch in 2013 as Principal Conductor of the Pasadena Pops.
Feinstein will put aside his baton on Saturday, however, and instead take the Pops’ stage at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia as vocalist, in “The Sinatra Project,” an homage to the music of Frank Sinatra.
An all-Sinatra concert was a natural for this Pops season, Feinstein said in a call from the East Coast. “This is the centennial of Frank Sinatra, who would have been 100 years old on Dec. 12, and I had the joy of meeting and knowing him. He was nice to me at a period of my life when I was still struggling and trying to make my way.”
The concert, Feinstein said, is “a way of saying thank you to him, and celebrating his timeless art.”
Under the baton of resident Pops conductor Larry Blank, Saturday’s program will feature songs that can be found on Feinstein’s two “Sinatra Project” albums, “plus some other things that I’ve created just for the performance,” he said. The latter include a medley of some of the most widely known songs that Sinatra recorded, combined “thematically,” Feinstein said, “so that they weave in and out of one another to tell a story. I thought that was a good way to touch on many of the familiar songs without copying him, and yet recognizing them and giving a different approach.”
Feinstein chose the songs — “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Luck Be A Lady,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” to name a few — for different reasons, but “most importantly,” he said, because he feels that he is able to bring to each song “something unique to make it fresh, and sound as if it is being done for the first time.”
Still, although his renditions of the songs differ from the way Sinatra did them, Feinstein said that he also tries to invoke a sense of the legendary singer, who told him “that the thing that was most important to him was the lyric,” Feinstein said. “It all comes from the lyric. Because of that, I do the same. I choose songs [in which] I can tell a story.”
In every Pops season, Feinstein, a passionate music curator, spotlights arrangements that he feels best express a song’s meaning, history, and/or evolution. The Sinatra concert will feature a number of charts by Nelson Riddle, one of several arrangers closely associated with Sinatra, as well as Feinstein’s own “in the style of” orchestrations.
“In the case of some songs, where the performances or recordings are not as well known,” Feinstein said, “or if I feel that I can take that orchestration and do something different with it vocally, and yet be true to the song, I will use it.” An example of that, he noted, will be the original Riddle orchestration of “From Here to Eternity,” “a vocal setting of the movie theme that Sinatra recorded.”
Not so long ago, Feinstein described his foray into conducting as a “great leap.” Now into his third season with the Pasadena Pops, he is clearly enjoying the experience.
“It’s become more pleasurable as I’ve gotten my sea legs and learned more about the essential needs of the conductor, and most importantly, being able to actualize those,” said Feinstein, describing the Pops as a “dream orchestra.”
Many of the musicians “have played in studio situations for years,” he said, “so they are comfortable with, and accustomed to, all kinds of music. It’s a wonderful gift to find a piece of music and say ‘gee, I’d like to play this,’ and then hand out the parts, lift the baton and hear it.
“That is a fantastic experience, and one that I never expected,” Feinstein said. “It’s just a dream come true to be able to have this association.”
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What: “The Sinatra Project,” Pasadena POPS “Sierra Acura Summer Concert Series”
Where: Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking; concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.
Admission: Single ticket prices per adult, $10 to $100; group table seating available. Pre-ordered dining packages available; food court and beverage centers on site. Pre-purchased parking at the Arboretum available to subscribers; free parking and shuttle service at the adjacent Westfield Santa Anita shopping center. Table or lawn seating (bring a blanket).
More info: (626)-793-7172, www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org or at the Arboretum on the day of the concert.
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LYNNE HEFFLEY writes about theater and culture for Marquee.