Jazz Articles about Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra: Frank Sinatra with The Count Basie Orchestra: Sinatra at the Sands

by Trevor MacLaren
January 20, 2004

Following a career revival marked by signing to Capitol, Frank Sinatra fell into a downward spiral not long after starting his own label, Reprise Records. After some of his weakest recordings since the Columbia singles in the late forties, Frankie struck gold. Sinatra at The Sands was, simply put, brilliant!Although his Capitol years, 1954-1962, are considered his peak by most critics-and I have to agree as well-the early Reprise catalogue had its moments as well, featuring more cuts ...

Frank Sinatra: The Voice of Frank Sinatra

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 7, 2003

The Voice was originally recorded in 1945 with a chamber orchestra (plus contributions from another Columbia noteworthy, vocal product guru Mitch Miller). This reissue supplements the album’s eight original tunes with ten bonus tracks, six of which are rare alternate takes, sending a picture postcard from a long-ago musical era.

This gentlemanly version of “Try a Little Tenderness” will come as a revelation to younger generations raised on Otis Redding’s barn-burning rip through the tune. The same thing ...

Frank Sinatra: Sinatra Sings Gershwin

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 7, 2003

Sings Gershwin compiles Sinatra’s studio recording of Gershwin songs for Columbia with fourteen previously unreleased Sinatra radio and TV programs broadcast while he was a Columbia artist, including his famous 1947 Gershwin tribute for CBS radio, Songs by Sinatra.

He’s essentially the pop crooner here, dedicating “Embraceable You,” for example, “...to little Nancy on her seventh birthday.” And his repartee with his female co-lead in “It Ain’t Necessarily So” shows him a charming comic. But some Gershwin material ...

Frank Sinatra: Sinatra Sings Cole Porter

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 7, 2003

Columbia celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of Sinatra’s first recordings as a solo artist (June 1943) with three new compilations that showcase the fledgling singer’s grace and dexterity with the popular songbook of the time. Sings Cole Porter puts every Sinatra studio recording of Cole Porter for Columbia together with ten previously unreleased radio and TV broadcasts of Sinatra singing Porter tunes during the time he was a Columbia artist.

It is odd to hear, through the periscope ...

Frank Sinatra with the Red Norvo Quintet: Live in Australia, 1959

by Joel Roberts
July 1, 1997

During his heyday at Capitol in the 1950s, when he recorded his definitive hard-swinging albums with big bands led by Nelson Riddle and Billy May, and indeed throughout most of his long career, Frank Sinatra has seldom appeared and almost never recorded with just a small band backing. This never-before-released live recording, just out on Blue Note, showcases Sinatra in an intimate setting backed only by Norvo's quintet and Sinatra's regular pianist Bill Miller. The small ensemble, ...