At the top of his game in Sin City

Frank Sinatra

“Sinatra: Vegas” (Reprise)

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FRANK SINATRA in action was an experience to savor. I reviewed him in concert several times in the last decade or so of his life. Each performance -- even in 1993, five years before he died -- was a convincing display of Sinatra’s belief in the power of spontaneity, something he insisted on even in the recording studio.

But his most spontaneous, relaxed and dynamic appearances usually took place onstage, especially in Las Vegas, where -- in an extraordinarily comfortable environment, accompanied by superb musicians, surrounded by worshipful audiences -- he delivered some of his most persuasive performances.

This five CD/DVD box includes some of the most remarkable singing in the entire Sinatra musical legacy (and that’s saying a lot). All previously unreleased, the recordings chronicle audio tracks of four Vegas performances: from 1961 and 1966 at the Sands, 1982 at Caesars Palace and 1987 at the Golden Nugget. The fifth disc is a DVD from 1978, also at Caesars.

The recordings from the Sands are simply astonishing -- Sinatra at the peak of his powers, singing, joking, laughing, capable of making a sardonic crack about himself in the middle of a song such as “Moonlight in Vermont” or “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and then instantly singing a line that is the epitome of musical romance. On the 1966 recording, he performs with the Count Basie Orchestra, displaying utterly convincing skills as a jazz singer. On the DVD, his interpretive mastery is that much more evident through a visual presence constantly underscoring the seductiveness of his sound, phrasing and irrepressible sense of swing.

So let’s get right to the point. Buy this boxed set. At a suggested list price of $79.98 -- $63.97 on Amazon.com -- it’s a bargain. And by the time you’ve heard and seen it all, you will have experienced that rarest of musical entities -- pop music as great art.

-- Don Heckman