Concert Review: Michael Feinstein at the Dakota Jazz Club

 

Michael Feinstein in concert at the Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, April 3, 2022. You can also see pianist Tedd Firth and drummer Mark McLean. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

One of my favorite performers, Michael Feinstein, came to the Dakota Jazz Club over the weekend. I’ve been a fan of Feinstein’s since I was a little kid. I was entranced by Feinstein’s 1989 album The M.G.M. Album, on which he sang songs like “It’s a Most Unusual Day,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” and my favorite song when the album was released, “Singing in the Rain.” Yes, I was a strange 9-year-old. But Michael Feinstein became the gateway to the Great American Songbook for me, and that led to discovering singers like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

Wikipedia tells me that Michael Feinstein is 65 years old, but my eyeballs would swear that can’t be true. Feinstein has always projected a boyish exuberance, and that remains true in 2022. His vocals have gotten better and better over the years, and it’s great fun to see him with just a trio of Tedd Firth on piano, Mark McLean on drums, and an excellent bassist whose name I didn’t write down and can’t find online.

Feinstein’s voice is always warm and inviting, which serves him well on up-tempo material, and over the years he’s added a tenderness that makes him a very affecting ballad singer as well. His version of “The Time Has Come,” a Marshall Barer song about gay rights, was especially affecting.

The concert started with a rush, as Feinstein charged into a bright and snappy rendition of “Hello, Young Lovers,” which brought to mind Bobby Darin’s version. Darin’s version was recorded in the 1960’s, but went unreleased until the late 1990’s, so it might be unlikely that Feinstein was influenced by Darin’s version, but then again, Feinstein’s knowledge of music is encyclopedic, so it’s still possible. “Hello, Young Lovers” was combined in a medley with “It’s All Right with Me,” by Cole Porter, from the musical Can-Can, and “Come Back to Me,” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It was a fun and energizing way to start the evening.

Another highlight was Feinstein’s rendition of “You and Me Against the World,” a hit for Helen Reddy, which Michael used as an example of how the Great American Songbook is like an expanding and evolving museum of the best of American culture. As Feinstein put it, “If a song transcends the time and place in which it was written, it becomes part of the Songbook.”

Feinstein also sang the 1950’s classic, “You Belong to Me,” originally a hit for Jo Stafford, although my favorite version is Dean Martin’s. Before he sang Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” Feinstein reminded the audience that Frank Sinatra had once called the song “the saddest song I ever heard.” And that’s really something, coming from a man who recorded entire albums made up of nothing but sad songs! (See In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, etc.) I’ve always wondered if Frank had his relationship with Ava Gardner in mind when he said that about “Just One of Those Things,” that theirs was a “love affair that was too hot not to cool down.”

In honor of Doris Day’s 100^th birthday, which was Sunday, April 3^rd, Feinstein sang “Fools Rush In,” which Day recorded for her 1962 album Duet, with the pianist Andre Previn. Day had told Feinstein that album was her own personal favorite among her recordings. Feinstein sang “The Trolley Song,” from Meet Me in St. Louis, and the exuberant spirit of the song fits perfectly with Feinstein’s own musical personality. During the requests part of the show, Feinstein started with “Pure Imagination,” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is one of my wife’s favorite songs. My wife chided me for not shouting out “Rhode Island is Famous for You” during the requests, as it’s one of my own favorite tunes of Feinstein’s that I remember from my childhood, from his 1987 album Live at the Algonquin.

If you love the Great American Songbook, or simply great music in general, go see Michael Feinstein if you have the chance. He’s sure to put a smile on your face.