Re: Sinatra

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Nelson Riddle was particularly gifted, I think, at crafting arrangements 
that worked with and carried Sinatra's voice without overwhelming it--and I 
think he (Riddle) did this quite consciously.  "Strangers in the 
Night"--even if Sinatra himself apparently hated it--works, in part, because 
of the arrangement, as does the magnificent, transporting "I Have Dreamed."  
The latter illustrates for me a touchstone of Sinatra's genius:  the ability 
to take a mediocre song (say, Gordon Jenkins' "I Loved Her") and make it 
good, just by investing heart and feeling into it, and to take a good song 
(like "I Have Dreamed," which is a fine song but, imho, hardly awesome) and 
make it ... awesome.

--Robert Cohen



>Sinatra, even in later years, was, well .... a performer who satisfied
>several generations. He was a stylist. The arrangements, as opposed to 
>those
>immitating swing and big band today (including those of Moshe Lauffer, et
>all), were impecable, never overpowering the singer. I am sick of
>complaining to the sound man to turn down the band, cut the echo, so I can
>HEAR Mordechai Ben David or Avraham Fried. Such never happened with 
>Frankie!
>

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