You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You

Amazing performance of Frank Sinatra, together with Dean Martin and Judy Garland.

The world still is the same, you’ll never change it
As sure as the stars shine above
You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you
So find yourself somebody to love

If I am not mistaken, I think this performance is included in this compilation:

The legendary Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin co-headline a live, vintage concert performance before a packed house in the home video issue, Most Famous Hits: Judy Garland/Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin. Featured in this 60-minute show are 20 numbers, performed solo and together. Selections include Garland interpreting “Just in Time,” “When You’re Smiling,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and “The Man that Got Away”; Sinatra on “Too Marvelous for Words” and “I See Your Face Before Me”; and Martin covering “Almost Like Being in Love” and “Bye Bye Blackbird.” The three team up for “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You,” while Garland performs two separate versions of “You Do Something to Me,” one with Sinatra and one with Martin. Martin and Sinatra pair up on “The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else.” ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Witchcraft (1965)

Those fingers in my hair
That sly come hither stare
That strips my conscience bare
It’s witchcraft

And I’ve got no defense for it
The heat is too intense for it
What good would common sense for it do

Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim Medley (1967)

This is one of my favorite clips of Frank Sinatra.

With a cigarette in hand, he sings almost offhandedly, ever so cooly, with only his voice betraying the depth of feeling behind these songs of love, loss and of course, longing. With Antonio Carlos Jobim’s fingers playing magic on the guitar, it was, really, the perfect pair.

From the site:

[From a] 1967 TV Show. A favorite is “Change Partners“, [a]n Irving Berlin 1938 song introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the movie, Carefree RKO 1938. “I Concentrate On You” composed by Cole Porter – introduced by Douglas MacPhail – for the 1940 movie “The Broadway Melody of 1940.” [Also] “Girl from Ipanema“, words and music by Jobim, DeMoraes and Gimbel 1963.
Popularized in the US by Astrud Gilberto and the Stan Getz Quartet in 1964.

Must you dance every dance with the same fortunate man?
You have danced with him since the music began.
Won’t you change partners and dance with me?
Must you dance quite so close with your lips touching his face?
Can’t you see I’m longing to be in his place?
Won’t you change partners and dance with me?
- Change Partners

You can find all these songs here:

Francis Albert Sinatra
& Antonio Carlos Jobim

Track listing:
1. The Girl From Ipanema
2. Dindi
3. Change Partners
4. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars
5. Meditation
6. If You Never Come To Me
7. How Insensitive
8. I Concentrate On You
9. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
10. Once I Loved

From Leonard Fleisig:

Sinatra & Jobim was released in the U.S. in 1967 during the height of Brasil’s bossa nova invasion. Performers such as Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto, enjoyed tremendous influence on U.S. pop music and jazz. Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, Ella Fitzgerald and others all absorbed or collaborated in the bossa nova boom. This album and the later “Sinatra and Company” mark Sinatra’s footprint in the bossa nova genre.

The CD opens with an excellent cover of The Girl from Ipanema with Sinatra taking verses in English and Jobim in Portuguese. As others have noted, Sinatra’s voice is quiet to the point of whispering. Those used to swing era Sinatra and his other full throttle vocals may find is quiet, spare renditions different to say the least. It happens to work in the context of this and other tracks such as Dindi, Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars and Meditation. Sinatra always had a great feel for interpreting a song and I think his approach to Jobim’s songs is dead solid perfect. Similarly, the three non-Jobim songs arranged by the very talented Claus Ogerman, “Change Partners“, “I Concentrate on You“, and “Baubles, Bangles and Beads“, fit in nicely with Jobim’s in terms of the mood and the music.

All in all this is an excellent CD and is one that I often turn to when I want music to whisper to me instead of shout. Highly recommended.

Frank Sinatra-Through The Lens Of Jazz, part 2

continued from here:

Sidebar:

While this tribute was assembled, five Sinatra recordings were mentioned repeatedly. For some expert opinions, we spoke with two self-confessed Sinatra-philes: Jonathan Schwartz has been playing Sinatra’s music on the radio in New York since 1967. Will Friedwald wrote perhaps the best book on Sinatra’s music, Sinatra! The Song Is You and A Singer’s Art.

1. Only the Lonely

Schwartz: It’s Sinatra’s favorite and he’s told me that many times, personally…also it contains, Nelson Riddle told me, his favorite arrangement, “Willow Weep For Me.”

Friedwald: The most classically oriented Sinatra recording, particularly the title track, which opens with Chopin-like piano solo played by Harry Sucoff, a classical pianist. But although this was as close as Sinatra got to singing in a classical style, it still comes from a jazz foundation rhythmically…”One For My Baby,” the definitive saloon song, has his regular pianist, Bill Miller on piano and has a completely different feeling. Even when the tracks are radically different, there’s a consistency to it. Miller has a completely different sound, it’s much more down to earth than the opening track yet they both belong on the same record.

2. Songs For Swingin’ Lovers

Schwartz: One of the two perfect masterpieces that I’ve heard Sinatra make. It’s a masterpiece in selection, in sequencing, in arranging and singing. In art work as well, it is still stunning to behold it even from a distance as one passes through a music store.

Friedwald: Sinatra’s most jubilant, up tempo album, his most successful swing record. The phrase “Swinging Lovers” is more than just a clever title, it’s romantic and rhythmic at the same time and Sinatra shows that those two ideals are not necessarily in opposition. That’s what the strength of “Swinging Lovers” is, it’s romantic and rhythm at the same time and Sinatra showed everybody how that can be done.

3. In The Wee Small Hours

Schwartz: The greatest album of music I’ve ever heard of any kind. It is relentlessly honest, understated…the melancholy arc of it, extending from Harold Arlen’s “Ill Wind,” to Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” plus the white man’s lament, ranging from my own father’s “I See Your Face Before Me,” to Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Deep in a Dream” to Hoagy Carmichael’s “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” And the centerpiece, a song written for an opera singer in 1935, Lawrence Tibbett was the guy’s name, “Last Night When We Were Young.” Tibbett sang the song for years and it was played for him immediately after the release of “Wee Small Hours” and he said, “Oh, I see.”

Friedwald: If you look at the ballad records with Riddle, from ‘53 going up to ‘58, each one gets progressively darker and darker. “Wee Small Hours,” is on the way to becoming “Only the Lonely” but at the same time, it’s much lighter. It’s more film noir than a heavy downer. Even though they are very sad songs, it’s still very much a jazz record. People tend to think that only the up tempo records are jazz records and really “Wee Small Hours” is as much a jazz record as anything he ever did. It covers all kinds of moods and there’s a lot of variation but at the same time, a lot of consistency. Sinatra is really the only singer who was just able to stay with one mood and stay with it for sixteen tracks and never have it get tedious. “Wee Small Hours” is the perfect example of that.

4. Come Fly With Me

Schwartz: A very entertaining and animated work… the thematic spine of it tends to bruise the romantic notion of what an album should be because what you hear are songs about places. The album also suffers with the inclusion of “Blue Hawaii” and “The Isle of Capri” but has some formidable Sinatra moments…

Friedwald: A whole different kind of a jazz sound. When he wanted to find other avenues to explore, he decided to work with Billy May. The wonderful thing about Come Fly With Me is that it shows that Billy May’s sense of humor and his sense of swing and brings out a different aspect of Sinatra. It’s much more whimsical, much more of a belly laugh. It seems much less careful, more freewheeling than a lot of the other Sinatra things yet at the same time, it’s very tightly controlled, not very much is left to chance on it.

5. Sinatra At The Sands

Schwartz: The best live album anyone has made of any kind of music. I’d like to lose the monologue for another three or four songs.

Friedwald: It’s important for two reasons. It’s his third album with Count Basie and it’s also his first live album even though he had recorded concerts prior to that but none of them really satisfied him. Basie’s presence ultimately contributed to that. On “Swinging Lovers,” Billy May’s jazz sound is more whimsical. The Basie sound is much leaner, more trim and economical.

It’s interesting that Sinatra swinging means three different things when you put him with three different bands. He can fit in with all of them yet at the same time, he’s uniquely himself. The Sinatra Basie relationship, well Basie and Sinatra suited each other perfectly because they both managed to fit into the same kind of a groove. Basie accentuates what Sinatra is doing and vice versa.

Stardust (1943)

Frank Sinatra appearing in a promotional film for Lucky Strike.

From the site:

With some minor alterations, this is essentially the same arrangement of “Stardust” that Sinatra recorded with the Tommy Dorsey band in 1941. Here, Frank is accompanied by his cohorts from “Your Hit Parade,” including conductor Mark Warnow. This public domain footage comes from the “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco” promotional film (full movie available at www.archive.org).

***

Sometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely nights
Dreaming of a song
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new, and each kiss an inspiration.
But that was long ago, and now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song

Frank Sinatra – Through The Lens Of Jazz

It is quite rare to see the music of Frank Sinatra considered as jazz, at least, here where I live, where popular music reigns supreme. I’ve had quite a lot of frustrating moments in music stores whenever I search for some of Sinatra’s music. They’re not anywhere in the jazz section, and can usually be found in the ‘easy listening’ section, a term which I absolutely abhor, for it degrades the effort such musicians like Frank Sinatra has put into their music. Nothing about his songs were easy to listen to, in the fact that these were not callously put together. There is actually some history here, some point of emotion that becomes a basis for Sinatra to create wonderful conceptual albums.

Recently though, I was able to visit this new store where they sell a good collection of books and hard-to-find music CDs and LPs. I really had a nice time, and it was a first for me to see Frank Sinatra albums in the jazz section. And there were copies of his albums, not just some terrible compilations made by some record companies. So what else can I do but buy them?

I’d post more about the albums I bought later on, but for now, here is an article I found about Frank Sinatra and jazz. Credit goes to the author, Bret Primack, and the site where I found this, JazzSingers.com.

Frank Sinatra – Through The Lens Of Jazz
by Bret Primack, May 1998 JazzTimes Magazine

“Throughout my career, if I have done anything, I have paid attention to every note and every word I sing – if I respect the song. If I cannot project this to a listener, I fail.”
- Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra turned 83 last December and as the 20th Century draws to a close, we offer this tribute to a man whose impact on our popular culture has been profound.

Later this year, Hofstra University will play host to a Frank Sinatra Conference for in-depth scholarly discussions on all aspects of his life and impact including his recordings, the dynamics of courtship and love in his songs, his film and television career, his multigenerational influence, his politics and involvement with the civil rights movement, his part in the subculture of Las Vegas casinos, his philanthropy, his effect on society and even his work as a painter.

Our homage to the Chairman of the Board a.k.a. Ol’ Blue Eyes a.k.a. The Voice will focus on his music, although any Sinatra story is really about much much more. Frank Sinatra went from teen idol to living legend, and, without formal training, developed a highly sophisticated style. His ability to produce long, flowing musical lines unbroken by pauses for breathing, his subtle use of the vocal techniques more commonly found in the opera and classical idioms, and his manipulation of phrasing, reminiscent of Billie Holiday, set him far above the average pop singer. Like Elvis Presley, the next singer to experience mass adulation, Frank Sinatra developed a unique white-blues style, supple enough to express the wide range of his own turbulent emotions. He transformed the songs of the great writers into something personal by the sincerity of his performance; Sinatra actually seemed to believe the words he was singing.

He has faced triumph, failure and triumph again throughout his long career as an entertainer. New musical fads and trends have come and gone during his lifetime but this man and his music have remained at the forefront of American culture for nearly half a century.

Listening to his recorded legacy, an incredible body of work that spans 1939 to 1994, there can be little doubt that Sinatra is the single greatest interpreter of American popular song-the one performer who elevated what he referred to as “saloon singing” to a high art. A man who has enriched American music with countless superior recordings of many classic standards and provided the soundtrack for much of this century.

Sinatra has touched many lives and for this tribute, we spoke with a cross section of people from the world of jazz.

John Zorn: There are so many things about him. His musicality, his timing, his creativity.

Fred Hersch: Great phrasing, great breath control.

Joe Lovano: His personality, his feeling, his tone. Frank Sinatra emerged in the late ‘30 and ’40s, alongside Billie Holiday and Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster…Sinatra’s sound, his voice, had the same meaning and impact as the great improvisers and players of the tenor saxophone. He’s one of the few cats who spanned all these different generations and always projected amazing glow, like Miles Davis did, in a very similar way.

Tommy LiPuma: Miles told me that on Porgy and Bess, he wanted his trumpet to sound like Sinatra.

John Zorn: There are inside records, which are outtakes, from both the Capitol and Reprise years and on them, you hear take after take of Frank Sinatra and in a sense, he’s just as creative an improviser as Charlie Parker. Every take is different, he approaches each in a slightly different way. He’s always searching.

Sinatra’s a total musician in the sense that he’s not just a singer; he’s a passionate, dedicated, effective searcher who wants to be in control of all the action. He’s a perfectionist, as you can hear on some of the bootleg records from the studio. He knows how to set the mood, he knows exactly what’s happening in the orchestra. He’ll say, hey, that trombone player, that note is getting in the way of my range. I’m a little weak, he explains in a session, this note is a little weak, can you change the voicing of this chord. He knows exactly what’s going on and he gets what he wants.

Jimmy Amadie: In addition to his sound and presence, Sinatra has the ability to sing a tune in any style and make it sound like his own. The sound is always rich and full and no one interprets a tune that is more believable than the way he has with both the music and the lyrics. An example of this magnified is when you hear the music of the various arrangers in the background and the way in which Sinatra blends, it is chameleon-like. As a musician, you can feel what he is doing and at that moment you want to be a part of it.

Whitney Balliet: Sinatra loved Mabel Mercer. He idolized her and at the same time, starting back in the ’60s, for some reason, he seemed to fall under the influence of Billie Holiday. At the time, his whole rhythmic attack changed very much like Holiday. Of course Billie loved Mabel Mercer too, but they were total opposites as singers. Mabel had fantastic articulation, the way she handled a lyric was extraordinary in terms of singing. It seemed to me that’s when he started doing that kind of highly rhythmic singing, in the early ’60s.”

Ken Peplowski: Frank Sinatra transcends titles but you could call him a jazz singer. I don’t think jazz singing is defined by scat singing or improvising. His form of improvising is making a song his own and interpreting it through his own experience. He shaped every song. There are certain tunes you listen to now, you think this is a Frank Sinatra song. He constantly evolved his interpretations over the years, just like all the great jazz musicians. You could go to hear him five nights in a row and the songs wouldn’t quite be the same every night. If that’s not jazz, I don’t know what is.