Cabaret Scenes CD Review

At last! Just what the world has been waiting for: a Frank Sinatra tribute album for people who kinda don’t like Frank Sinatra.

Huh? If you like the great, memorable, arrangements crafted for Ol’ Blue Eyes for the great standards—but never cared for his voice and persona, maybe this is for you. Seventeen of those arrangements, many by Nelson Riddle (whose daughter wrote the liner notes and gives this her thumbs-up), are fully credited—and those of us Frank devotees who virtually know each chart by heart will recognize all the dutifully cloned signature musical phrases, accents, counter-point figures, and tempi. Britain’s Gary Williams has a sweet, gentle sound and steps gingerly into the master’s musical shoes like an understudy who’s told to follow right in those laid-out footsteps. His own personality and creativity quashed, he even goes so far as to adopt trademark Sinatra embellishments, like in “I Get a Kick Out of You,” singing “Mmmm, ya give me a boot” and pointedly leavin’ off the ‘G’ when singin’ “Dancing in the Dark.” This automatic-pilot flight, despite the talents involved, sounds… well, karaoke-ish. And with Williams not approach-ing the F.S. confidence, feistiness and swagger the charts were designed to complement and bring out, the assertive arrangements and instrumentalists upstage the more reserved singer on the outside looking in. It all reminds me of a joke a CPA friend once told me: they say an actuary is someone who’d like to be an accountant, but fears it might be too exciting.

So, you get “Where or When,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “They All Laughed,”…great songs. And oh, I do enjoy Gary’s voice (I’ve heard other projects)—but more when he can be his own man and phrase with originality. If he were interpreting and adding something of his own, I’d be eager to hear it. Yes, everyone from Tony Bennett to Barry Manilow to Frank Sinatra, Jr. has done a Sinatra salute, gender and generation no barrier, and I am open-minded/open-eared, liking many of them. (But don’t get me started on the “who??” parade of unknowns with more adulation than panache or pitch.) With the old Sinatra record-ings so voluminously and easily available, this seems like the caffeine-free

Diet Coke version.

Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
September 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org

Gary Williams

Gary Williams Meets Frank Sinatra

BOS Entertainment Ltd.



	Gary Williams Gary Williams Meets Frank Sinatra BOS Entertainment Ltd.
At last! Just what the world has been waiting for: a Frank Sinatra tribute album for people who kinda don’t like Frank Sinatra. Huh? If you like the great, memorable, arrangements crafted for Ol’ Blue Eyes for the great standards—but never cared for his voice and persona, maybe this is for you. Seventeen of those arrangements, many by Nelson Riddle (whose daughter wrote the liner notes and gives this her thumbs-up), are fully credited—and those of us Frank devotees who virtually know each chart by heart will recognize all the dutifully cloned signature musical phrases, accents, counter-point figures, and tempi. Britain’s Gary Williams has a sweet, gentle sound and steps gingerly into the master’s musical shoes like an understudy who’s told to follow right in those laid-out footsteps. His own personality and creativity quashed, he even goes so far as to adopt trademark Sinatra embellishments, like in “I Get a Kick Out of You,” singing “Mmmm, ya give me a boot” and pointedly leavin’ off the ‘G’ when singin’ “Dancing in the Dark.” This automatic-pilot flight, despite the talents involved, sounds… well, karaoke-ish. And with Williams not approach-ing the F.S. confidence, feistiness and swagger the charts were designed to complement and bring out, the assertive arrangements and instrumentalists upstage the more reserved singer on the outside looking in. It all reminds me of a joke a CPA friend once told me: they say an actuary is someone who’d like to be an accountant, but fears it might be too exciting. So, you get “Where or When,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “They All Laughed,”…great songs. And oh, I do enjoy Gary’s voice (I’ve heard other projects)—but more when he can be his own man and phrase with originality. If he were interpreting and adding something of his own, I’d be eager to hear it. Yes, everyone from Tony Bennett to Barry Manilow to Frank Sinatra, Jr. has done a Sinatra salute, gender and generation no barrier, and I am open-minded/open-eared, liking many of them. (But don’t get me started on the “who??” parade of unknowns with more adulation than panache or pitch.) With the old Sinatra record-ings so voluminously and easily available, this seems like the caffeine-free Diet Coke version. Rob Lester Cabaret Scenes September 2010 www.cabaretscenes.org