Description
Personnel includes: Frank Sinatra (vocals); Bill Miller, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Jack Elliott, Patrick Williams (conductors); Luciano Pavarotti (vocals).
Producers: Phil Ramone, Hank Cattaneo.
Engineers include: Al Schmitt, Norm Patiz, Richard Kimball.
Principally recorded live in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "My Way" recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California. Includes liner notes by Bill Miller.
Frank Sinatra remains America's greatest ambassador of the popular song. And while time has shaded his gifts, the rich resonance of his voice remains intact, even if his intonation sometimes wanders. His timbre is as sensual and alluring as ever, although there are certain notes he can no longer reach for. But when all the trappings of youth are removed, what reamins in its distilled, spiritual form is all the more moving.
From the opening cadences of Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," it's clear that Sinatra's swaggering sense of phrasing remains intact. Even on a tune much closer in spirit to R&B audiences than Sinatra's epoch, the singer turns this classic Motown ballad into a brassy, big band shout. But Sinatra has always been a champion of finely crafted songs, transmuting them into personal statements. His swinging sense of style and personal commitment rings through each of these concert performances (plus an unlikely pairing of stylist and songbird, when the Chairman teams with opera star Luciano Pavarotti for a studio encounter on "My Way").
The performances on LIVE IN CONCERT range from hard swinging treatments of popular songs, to melancholy laments about lost love. Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Soliloquy" is full of wisdom, as a free spirit ruminates about impending fatherhood. Sinatra moves easily from conjecture about male and female offspring, from recitative to lyric exposition in a stunning display of theatrical authority.
"Everybody loves a winner, but nobody loves me/Mister peaceful, mister happy, that's what I want to be," Sinatra sings on Don Costa's gently bouncing arrangement of "Maybe This Time," mixing pathos with a steely determination to come out on top. Even better is Sinatra's poignant visit with an old flame on "What's New." Each pause italicizes his sense of regret; listen to the way he finally allows his voice to break while intoning "I understand, I do, pardon my asking, what's new?" And his treatment of the text and melody on the classic saloon song "Angel Eyes" is magnificent. The way he slides out of the bar (and the song) on the moody carpet of Bill Miller's piano and Nelson Riddle's strings ("'Scuse me, while I...disappear") is the quintessence of Sinatra's art--and his greatness.
- Format: CD
- Genre: Rock
- Released: 1995-11-14