"Jazz His Way: Frank Sinatra" on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

Here's a Night Lights program that originally aired last December for the Sinatra centennial and re-aired this past week, now archived for online listening:

Jazz His Way: Frank Sinatra

It gathers some rarely-heard encounters with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald along with broadcasts and recordings made with Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Red Norvo, and others.

[Mark Stryker]

Great playlist, David. That fantastic Latin version of "Night and Day" was completely new to me. Those "Perfectly Frank" performances are really something else.

Would add as a coda that I think some of Sinatra's best jazz singing -- looser phrasing, improvising with the melody, really swinging with the band --  came on two early '60s reprise LPs, "Swinging Brass (Hefti) and Ring-A-Ding Ding (Mandel). On the former check out "I'm Beginning to See the Light," especially Sinatra's last half choruses after the ensemble and Ben Webster's solo. On the latter, "A Foggy Day" is representative, particularly his second chorus. That's Don Fagerquist on trumpet. 

Edited July 4, 2016 by Mark Stryker

[ghost of miles]

We re-aired Jazz His Way: Frank Sinatra this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.