Audiocassette

*** “Frank Sinatra, My Father” by Nancy Sinatra. Read by Nancy and Frank Sinatra. Abridged by Jessica Kaye on two cassettes. Dove.

His daughter’s portrait of him is not quite Kitty Kelley’s but it does not deny the blemishes and the contradictions. It is deeply affectionate, naturally, and it is at pains to understand the man and to fight ancient innuendoes with facts. Sinatra’s reading of his own quotes from the text is sometimes stilted. But his description of how he learned from Tommy Dorsey’s trombone-playing the breath control that made Sinatra’s uniquely long phrasings possible is almost by itself worth the price of the cassette. For his admirers, a close-up view. Information: (800) 345-9945.