Re: Sinatra

[Leopold N Friedman <apikoyros...>]

Robert,
I enjoy Jonathan Schwartz' radio programming, his knowledge of music,
and his taste. Perhaps the late (and great) Frank Sinatra can sing some 
punctuation into the sentence below to keep our Mr. Schwartz alive. :-)

Seriously, I very much agree with you and Jonathan Schwartz on Frank
Sinatra's artful simplicity and clarity. Thanks for bringing up the
example
of his "One for My Baby."

Lee

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 18:01:36 "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com> 
writes:
> >Which makes good sense if you think, as many critics (myself among 
> them)
> >that among Sinatra's greatest strengths was his phrasing -- so much 
> so
> >that even when the intonation is less than perfect the results can 
> be
> >enthralling.
> >
> >George Robinson
> >
> 
> Jonathan Schwartz--radio DJ, among other things, and Sinatra 
> aficianado, 
> among other things--observed with marvelous subtlety after his death 
> that 
> Sinatra was the only singer he'd ever heard who could sing a 
> semicolon.
> 
> --Robert Cohen
> 
> P.S. And a second recollection comes to mind now that I've written 
> this:  On 
> a PBS Harold Arlen special, I _saw_ (as well as, of course, heard) 
> Sinatra 
> sing "One for My Baby" (the one that begins "It's a quarter past 
> three"--which MTM so perfectly goofily murders in an MTM episode); I 
> don't 
> think I'd ever heard him sing the song; and the song's become such a 
> cliche 
> that I never actually listen to it (i.e., open my heart as well as 
> ears).  I 
> listened now, though, and have kept the tape; he manages to 
> dead-perfectly 
> *say*/sing the lyrics--I started to write "as though conversing 
> (i.e., to 
> the bartender)," which is, indeed, exactly the context of the lyric, 
> but 
> Sinatra *is* conversing--but without a trace of the 
> self-consciousness that 
> would drag down most singers trying to do that.  (They'd be singing, 
> "I know 
> I'm supposed to be singing this song like I was conversing, so, see, 
> I'm 
> conversing.)  It's limpidly, understatedly, the text/monologue of 
> the 
> song--and reminds me that a writing teacher once taught that good 
> writing is 
> like a perfectly clear window--you don't see the window.  Sinatra at 
> his 
> best is like that:  There's no window--just the heart of the singer, 
> and the 
> song.  You can see right through.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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