Michael Feinstein's American Songbook on PBS

[Tomasso]

Episode 1: Putting On the Tail Fins (1950s–1960s)

Episode 1 focuses on the 1950s and 1960s, when the Great American Songbook competed with new forms like rock ’n’ roll, and rhythm & blues. As Feinstein crisscrosses the country performing with big bands, symphony orchestras and jazz combos, viewers learn how iconic singers like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Rosemary Clooney kept the Songbook alive by reinventing pop standards of the 1930s and 1940s.

 

[Fletch]

Great show. It will be useful in helping "sell" my final master's project to my committee - it's going to be a multimedia interface to introduce the "classic songbook" to college kids in music appreciation.

I was particularly pleased that they avoided easy stereotypes about what kind of people appreciate and study this music - not easy since both they and the music are often stereotyped.

 

[John in Covina]

I have caught a couple of episodes but just parts of each. They're really quite good for history and connecting the times with the tunes.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I've seen both episodes that have aired and enjoyed them.

But as I said on a different thread, I am very underwhelmed by Feinstein as a performer. His singing, while doing honor to the songs with his obvious love, intelligence, and dedication to tradition, is technically impressive... but it just leaves me cold. I'd much rather see more old film/kinescope footage of the departed greats than watch him.

However, his obsessive collecting/cataloging/copying of old recordings, sheet music, etc., is fascinating, and he's doing a great service to history by dedicating such a big chunk of his time and money to it. (And as somebody whose apartment is stuffed to the gills with LPs, reel-to-reel tapes, 16mm and Super 8 films, cassettes, CDs, VHS tapes, photos, comics, books and magazines, etc., I can certainly relate!) So I'm glad that he's a successful enough performer to be able to do his studio work... but I won't be buying any of his CDs.

It's definitely an interestingly different take from what's been done before, documentary-wise, on the great American songbook. I'm looking forward to next week's final episode.

 

[Fletch]

What I hear in his singing is just a little too much reverence. Even when he lets loose, it's in a mannered cabaret style - sort of Broadway belting toned down for a smaller hall.

Still and all, Doc, Michael's performing is what makes him a sharer and an educator, not just a collector and saver. He really does believe in posterity and in the music, and he can articulate what is so great about it. That, especially, is rare - classic pop has mostly fans, seldom advocates.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I'm not a fan of Feinstein, but I am a fan of the American Songbook and enjoyed viewing this PBS series. In a similiar vein, is the Songwriters Hall of Fame - Virtual Museum Home where you can search for composers, titles, songs, albums, etc.

http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/

 

[Fletch]

Continuing backwards in time - I suppose we'll never know why they did that - tonight's (final) show was about the 20s and 30s. It was a fun one - as befits the music of that era. Guests included Vince Giordano and his band (both came off great), Peter Mintun (him too), and Joe Franklin (who never does IMHO, but...).

The main theme repeated from earlier is one of lost context. Michael repeats that "if no one plays this stuff for people, it's gonna die." Too true. But that lost context seems to have some consequences you see in the visuals - consequences that aren't discussed.

You get the feeling that where the music really lives today is in cramped, stifling places. Windowless archives where you can barely turn around. Studios all tangled up with cable. And maybe, in cramped, stifling minds, like that of poor Joe Franklin, whose head is so chaotic with raw data and anecdote that he can't get out an intelligible sentence. Even Michael, suave and polished as he seems, is said to care not at all for clothes or food or drink. His joy is totally solitary - pushing buttons and geeking out.

It makes you wonder - well, it does me, anyway. Is this what happens to you if you spend too much time in a world of lost contexts? Or is this who you have to be to go there in the first place? Are you crazy to want it all, wine, women and song?

I know he's supposed to be just a simple troubadour, but what's he really telling us?

 

[Tomasso]

There was a little too much puffery ......borderline reality show.

 

[Fletch]

I agree. Anybody wanna deconstruct Terence? He seemed to be very proactive about shaping our opinions of Michael - "he needs me / he couldn't get along without me / he's an idiot savant." Redacted, see below.

 

[John in Covina]

I'd say that Terrence simply wants Michael to be happy doing what he likes to do and makes it possible to remove obstacles and distractions.

 

[Fletch]

You know, I was overly judgmental there. I fell victim to the twin tropes of artistic-autistics and ghey sophisticates and all the assumptions therein.

If Terrence were Theresa and Michael were, say, an architect, I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. Either way, I shouldn't have, and I take it back.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I was impressed with musician and archivist Vince Giordano, his group the Nighthawks, and his retro musical instruments, especially the violin with that megaphone attachment, used in early miked recordings. What shocked me was the analogy made by Feinstein about Al Jolson being the Elvis Presley of the late 20's. He wasn't taking about the music, but rather Mr. Jolson's dance moves. I always found Jolson to be a rather creepy performer, and watching his gyrations in the last episode of this series did nothing to change this view. Funny thing in his later years he was married to one of the most famous movie dancers ever to grace the silver screen, Ruby Keeler. Wonder if she tought him a few new moves. But one cannot repute the fact that Jolie could sell a song. Just about everytune he recorded became a rock solid hit. T'was nice to see the King of Nostalgia, Joe Franklin. As for Joe Franklin's office, oy vay, he could definitely use an assistant to sort out the golden gems he has hidden in that mess.
[video=youtube;Y20RIIWHoOA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y20RIIWHoOA[/video]
[video=youtube;GJM89U_0GXA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJM89U_0GXA[/video]

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I loved the show. It was so fascinating to see into the life of someone like Michael Feinstein. I do like him as performer and have all of his recordings even met him briefly and found him very personable. With his relationship with Terrence, I thought it showed a mature presentation of a couple, be they straight or gay. There are people you see together and wonder "how did they get together?" This show explained it, as well as how Michael can spend most of his non-performing time collecting and cataloging. Terrence runs the place and it seems just fine with Michael. It is wonderful he has found someone to watch over him while he does this important (at least to music history) task.

 

[Fletch]

As for Joe Franklin's office, oy vay, he could definitely use an assistant to sort out the golden gems he has hidden in that mess.

I know the type. He would demand to participate in the handling of Every. Last. Dag. Blasted. Item. And for that reason, it will get done only over his dead body. Probably literally.

Besides, I have a theory about such dense accretions of arcana: They create their own magic, as if by a kind of mystic fermentation, with OCD and funk as the catalysts. When cleaned up and made accessible in well-lit, airy, high-tech spaces, the magic dies. They become mere objects. Becoming open to anyone, they inspire no one.

When there is lost context, I think there must also be a consuming mania, even a monomania. The kind that makes people and things squirrely, and kind of crabbed up and hunched over. Like Joe and his travesty of an office, or like odd-ish dancers in a dim low-ceilinged club in deep Manhattan. That is safe space for it, I feel - sacred space.

As I alluded to upthread a ways, bringing this stuff out into the fresh air of a world it's got little or nothing to do with could kill it just as dead as not bringing it out at all.

It's a sad irony. But I'm drawn to sad ironies.

 

[Solid Citizen]

Feinstein @ COLLECTOR

What impressed me more than his performing was his collecting, going out there & seeking out what he was seeking in the trenches so to speak, I did DIG his performance with the Nighthawks! Solid Citizen

 

[John in Covina]

I did DIG his performance with the Nighthawks! Solid Citizen

That was really good, the Nighthawks I believe was the band backing Rufus Wainwright when they did the same tune for the sound track to "The Aviator" which is really a fine CD with great music.

 

[skyvue]

Just wanted to make sure everyone is aware that the Nighthawks play every Monday and Tuesday at a club in midtown Manhattan. Cover's just $15, with a two-drink (or is it a $15?) minimum. A real bargain. Be sure to catch 'em if you're visiting NYC.

 

[Doctor Strange]

You know, I'm embarrassed to say that I've never gone to see them after knowing about them for decades... and I love twenties jazz. (Also, one of my oldest friends has known Vince for years, they travel in some of the same circles: Sons of the Desert, etc.) When I took Phil Schaap's Duke Ellington course earlier this year, he was effusive about Vince being one of the very few who really understood the workings of a jazz-age big band and replicated it very, very well.

Yeah, I really have to get my act together and schlep down to see the Nighthawks sometime...

(Whereas Feinstein is playing ten minutes from where I live next month - and I have zero desire to see him.)

 

[skyvue]

You know, I'm embarrassed to say that I've never gone to see them after knowing about them for decades... and I love twenties jazz.

The wife and I went to see the Nighthawks last week and had a great time. One highlight was when Vince said a fan had emailed him that week and requested a particular swing-era tune (Dance with a Debutante, I think it was called). Vince told the fan that, alas, he didn't have any charts for that one, but then he dug through his stacks at the relative last minute and found that he did. So he sprung the song on the band, handing out the charts and having them play it, sight previously unseen.

And they sounded great, just as if they'd rehearsed the song a dozen times.

 

[Solid Citizen]

The NIGHTHAWKS

That was really good, the Nighthawks I believe was the band backing Rufus Wainwright when they did the same tune for the sound track to "The Aviator" which is really a fine CD with great music.

YES, John that is the Nighthawks on the Aviator soundtrack. Their performance created a strong buzz for fans of authentic period Jazz band music. Solid Citizen

PS Skyvue THANKS for heads up on where we could catch the Nighthawks LIVE!