For those who believed that every note Frank Sinatra ever sang already has been released, reissued and repackaged, brace yourselves: There’s new material to come. The man recorded and performed so prolifically for nearly six decades that the vaults keep yielding more music.
The latest release, “Sinatra: New York” (Reprise Records), comprises four CDs spanning 1955 to 1990, plus a DVD of a 1980 Carnegie Hall concert — none of it previously issued. The recordings document live New York performances (rather than studio sessions) and vary as far as acoustical quality and musical values are concerned.
Yet Sinatra’s work so dominates our understanding of the 20th century American art song that even his most casual performances reward close listening. An off night from Sinatra, in other words, can be more intriguing than a fine show from practically anyone else.
There’s no telling what Sinatra, who died in 1998 at age 82, might have thought about the release of an impromptu, 1955 performance at a party for Tommy Dorsey and a 1963 set with Skitch Henderson at the piano (which together fill the first CD of the boxed set).
The thin musical accompaniments and the singer’s occasional memory slips clearly stand far afield from Sinatra’s best work. And yet, vocally, he’s at his pinnacle here.
Ol’ Blue Eyes is not in top form at the start of an April 8, 1974, Carnegie Hall concert (documented on the boxed set’s second CD) recorded after his return from a short-lived retirement. Yet once he launches into David Gates’ “If,” he finds his voice, and then some.
If the 1974 Carnegie Hall appearance is slow to get started, Sinatra comes out swinging at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 12, 1974, (on the boxed set’s third CD). Back in fighting form, he brings plenty of rhythmic punch to “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”
Conventional wisdom holds that late in life Sinatra couldn’t sing anymore and shouldn’t have. Wrong.
Email Story
Printer Friendly 
Quick Job Search
@Nyx.replyAnswerText@