Jazz Articles about Frank Sinatra

About Frank Sinatra

Radio & Podcasts

We've done vocalists before, but never devoted an episode to the Chairman of the Board. Now we have, so that's off the bucket list. Listen as the boys discuss five fantastic Mr. Frank's platters and opine on where newbies should get to know this cultural shibboleth. Playlist Discussion of Frank Sinatra's album Swing and Dance with Frank Sinatra (Columbia) 2:53 Discussion of Frank Sinatra's album In the Wee Small Hours (Capitol Records) 17:29 Discussion of Frank Sinatra's album ...

Building a Jazz Library

Eight Sinatra Surprises

by David Bittinger
October 5, 2024

Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were mutual fans who joined up for superb duets and had similar repertoires. Is it possible to call one of them primarily a “jazz singer" and one not? Yeah, it's possible. Listen to Ella scat on How High The Moon and you hear a genius singer who came from jazz territory and could riff like an instrumentalist. Frank really wasn't a jazz singer and had just one little joke scat, “dooby dooby doo," ...

The Golden Age of Jazz

Sinatra In The Studio

by Bill Gottlieb
March 15, 2024

This article was first published at All About Jazz in December 1998. Back in 1947, I covered, for kicks, a Frank Sinatra Columbia record date, produced in New York at Liederkranz Hall. There was an acoustically superb studio large enough to handle the sumptuous, full-fiddle orchestra assembled by Axel Stordahl, the leader and arranger. In the band were many of the city's top studio musicians, a stimulating sight. Dominating the scene was Sinatra, the one-time ...

Highly Opinionated

The Rat Pack vs. the Kids in the Kitchen: Are Those Our Only Choices?

by Con Chapman
September 21, 2023

It was a more important anniversary than most so we decided to splurge on a local restaurant that always gives me buyer's remorse when I get the check. My wife and I are both getting up in years and we eat out at what she used to jokingly refer to as “blue hair hours," when you can get the early-bird special if you want. In that time slot the crowd consists of senior citizen guys and their wives, ...

Building a Jazz Library

Frank Sinatra: The Capitol Records Albums, 1954 to 1959

by Dan McClenaghan
December 26, 2022

After stints in the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands, Frank Sinatra began his solo recording career in 1947 with Columbia Records. This association lasted until 1950. He switched labels in 1954, moving on to Capitol Records. Songs For Young Lovers (Capitol, 1954) was his first release for the label. It was the beginning of an unparalleled output of excellence in recorded music. Nobody has done it better. He stayed with Capitol until 1961 when he started his own label, ...

Album Review

Frank Sinatra: Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra

Read "Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 5, 2021

Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra is without question a recording achievement of importance and historical magnitude. Producers Charles L. Granata and Andreas Meyer have delivered an experience that sources and reconstitutes important Sinatra mid-20th Century material. It will fascinate Sinatraphiles and enlighten those interested in “The Voice's" artistic development from crooner to swing icon. Included in the album are eight Great American Songbook classics that Sinatra recorded for Columbia Records circa 1950 with swinging big bands. Those ...

Highly Opinionated

Frank Sinatra: Myth, Reality and a Critic Standing in Line at Arby’s

by S.G Provizer
July 16, 2020

The mere act of re-releasing a 1960 Frank Sinatra album speaks to the fact that his name still creates ripples when tossed into the cultural pond; still has the power to inspire a reaction when other other vocal stars of yore have receded into distant memory. An ocean of ink has been spilled in portraits and musical criticism of the “Chairman of the Board," some of it merely respectful, most adulatory. Long ago, the rough, mafia-inflected edges were smoothed out ...