Frank Lamphere: Frank Songs, My Way: Frank Lamphere Sings Sinatra

"Now that's original... How'd he ever come up with that one?" These words open the press material for Frank Songs, My Way: Frank Lamphere Sings Sinatra, and it is a solid question, with so many albums of Frank Sinatra covers. It would be tough to top Tony Bennett's Perfectly Frank (Columbia Records, 1992).      

Performers who cover other performers tend to make two mistakes. First, they often pick the obvious songs, which have probably been covered many times, and chances are, some of them will be better than theirs. Second, they will often use the same arrangement, style, or tempo. This will encourage comparison to the original, and with Sinatra, it probably will not be favorable to them.

Lamphere aimed to transcend these issues. Although he did pick some obvious songs, he also selected "The Shadow of Your Smile," which Sinatra only recorded live. "Drinking Again" and "Cycles" are from two of his less-popular albums. Sinatra put the pain into the "Drinking," but Lamphere appears to be having too much fun on some of these songs. "My Way" gets turned into a medium-tempo swing, which makes for enjoyable listening, but cuts the emotional depth out of the lyrics. Perhaps the most emotional performance on the album is on "How Deep Is the Ocean." Lamphere could have done more ballads.

With "Cycles," Lamphere makes it into a straight-ahead swing tune rather than the country-tinged waltz that Sinatra sang, outscoring Sinatra. With "More," Lamphere makes it into a light bossa, among the better versions of the song.

 "Fly Me to the Moon" was not written for Sinatra. It was written as "In Other Words" by Bart Howard for his lover, Thomas Fowler, as a waltz in 1954, and was recorded by dozens of artists before Sinatra put his stamp on it a decade later. Lamphere reverts it to a jazz waltz, but up-tempo, putting his signature on it as well. He does the same with "The Summer Wind" for a satisfying change of pace.

The album is professionally recorded and has some great playing with expert guest solos on a few of the tunes. Three stars.