Re: Sinatra

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

     If you want to hear clear as a bell intonation listen to Ella Fitgerald 
or Mabel Mercer(who Sinatra credited with teaching him how to sing). 
Regardless of his breath and intonation problems, I still tell people who 
want to really learn how to sing, to listen to Frankie. The technique may 
not be perfect but the heart and soul are wonderful...and singing is much 
more than hitting the right notes all of the time. For example: Nina Simone, 
constantly sings off key, but her emotion always carries the words and the 
tune.
    Trudi


>From: Leopold N Friedman <apikoyros (at) juno(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: Sinatra
>Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 21:12:45 -0400
>
>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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