Jazz vocalist joins Sarasota Orchestra for Sinatra program

Ol’ Blue Eyes is back, sort of.

For its last regular pops concert of the 2016-17 season, the Sarasota Orchestra is paying tribute to one of the greatest and most popular singers of the 20th century with a jazz tribute show titled “The Music of Sinatra.”

The Sinatra program is set for three shows Friday and Saturday at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. (The orchestra has one additional pops concert scheduled, an outdoor performance May 12-13 at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota.)

For the Sinatra show, the guest vocalist is Michael Andrew. Andrew is an Orlando-based jazz singer and bandleader (he fronts a band called Swingerhead) and he has performed solo, with orchestras and with his band all over the country. From 1994-96, Andrew was the headline act at the Rainbow Room, the legendary club at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

The performance includes narration, as Andrew weaves stories of Frank Sinatra’s life in between the songs. Among the Sinatra classics on the program are “All or Nothing at All,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “In the Still of the Night,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” “Luck Be a Lady” and “New York, New York.”

Andrew Lane, the Sarasota Orchestra’s principal pops conductor, is the conductor for this concert.

Details: April 21-22, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 8 p.m. Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday. $35-$82. 941-953-3434, sarasotaorchestra.org.

This story was originally published April 19, 2017 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Jazz vocalist joins Sarasota Orchestra for Sinatra program."