Jazz Articles about Michael Feinstein

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Michael Feinstein: Big City Rhythms

by Matthew S. Robinson
August 1, 2001

Having created some of the best and most enduring musical catalogs of the composers of the Great American Songbook and some of the best cabaret sets ever heard, Michael Feinstein is breaking new ground with his first Big Band album. Growing up in the personal attendance of the legendary Ira Gershwin and in the comforting shadow of such standard bearers as Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer and Irving Berlin, Feinstein has partnered his smokey vocals with the fiery horns of the ...

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Michael Feinstein: Romance On Film, Romance On Broadway

by AAJ Staff
January 1, 2001

Released just in time for the 2000 holiday season (and I did see this CD filling end-cap displays at Barnes & Noble), the new Michael Feinstein two-CD package broadens his appeal beyond Broadway tunes that he does so famously. Instead, he has chosen romantic tunes written for film and stage as the glue holding together all of the tunes thematically.As one would expect, almost all of the tunes were written by the classic songwriters of earlier generations, going ...

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Michael Feinstein: Romance on Film, Romance on Broadway

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

This is a double CD which comes from live sessions by Michael Feinstein at New York's Regency Hotel in April of 2000. The remaining tracks are studio sessions. All of it, as the album title advertises, is Feinstein's interpretations of standards from the Great American Songbook that were introduced or at least given notoriety on a Broadway stage or in a Hollywood film. It never ceases to amaze me how much Feinstein sounds like Johnny Mathis, communicating that intense, emotional ...

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Michael Feinstein w/ Maynard Ferguson: Big City Rhythms

by Dave Hughes
April 1, 2000

Up to this point, Michael Feinstein has focused his talents on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley tunes. This is his first foray into big band swing, and it's a rewarding and satisfying effort.  Feinstein exhibits expressiveness, precision, and an excellent command of dynamics.  Maynard Ferguson is primarily in a supporting role here, fronting a full big band comprised of his current Big Bop Nouveau personnel, some alumni, and some L.A. big band pros. He does get a few solo spots, ...

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Michael Feinstein with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band: Big City Rhythms

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2000

Big City Rhythms represents something of a departure for singer / composer / arranger Michael Feinstein. Instead of centering his performance on the works of a single popular composer, as he usually does, Feinstein takes a large bite out of the Great American Songbook; and instead of performing with a small group or generic big band, he enlists the services of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson whose ensemble is hardly an unknown quantity. The upshot is a marvelous album that offers the ...

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Michael Feinstein: Big City Rhythms

by Jim Santella
December 1, 1999

What do Michael Feinstein and Maynard Ferguson have in common? They’re both prolific (Feinstein has 18 albums now). Both have an appreciation for popular songs and both employ distinctive sounds. Feinstein’s vocal quality is smooth, shallow and friendly, while Ferguson’s thin, high-pitched trumpet acrobatics are legendary. Neither artist makes full use of music overtones, preferring instead to do without a full, rich, resonant tone. Both have the initials M.F. But that’s where the similarities end.

Feinstein’s strength lies in his ...

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Michael Feinstein: Michael & George: Feinstein Sings Gershwin

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 1998

By now, most people who have some knowledge of popular music (the “standards,” that is, not what passes today for popular), know also that Michael Feinstein is, as the sleeve note to Michael & George asserts, “widely recognized as one of the foremost experts [on] and interpreters of [George] Gershwin’s music. ....” On Michael & George those interpretations are, as always, flawless. Michael knows George well, and knows how to describe his compositions and their lyrics (most of them written ...