Concert Review: Michael Feinstein at the Dakota Jazz Club

Singer, pianist, conductor, and music archivist Michael Feinstein.

Tonight, I saw Michael Feinstein at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. I’ve been a fan of Feinstein’s since I was a little kid, and his music was the way I was introduced to the Great American Songbook. Which is only fitting, since Feinstein is such an advocate and proponent of those songs.

For this concert, Feinstein was backed by Tedd Firth on piano, Phil Palombi on bass, and Mark McLean on drums. They were an excellent backing group and provided superb accompaniment on both ballads and swingers. I’ve never seen Feinstein sing with a small backing group like this—I’m pretty sure every time I’ve seen him he’s either been on his own, just accompanying himself on piano, or with an orchestra. 

Michael looked and sounded great—it doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since the last time I saw him in person, which was back in 2012. (I also reviewed his 2011 concert here.) He was sharply dressed in a dark blue suit and a black dress shirt. Feinstein’s voice sounds great, and it even seems like his voice has gotten more powerful, as he held some ending notes for a very long time. And he hasn’t lost any of his upper range. Feinstein remains a fun and vibrant nightclub entertainer, as he brings a warm and engaging personality to the stage. It’s hard to imagine someone not having fun at a Michael Feinstein concert. 

Feinstein performed several medleys of songs, and the opener was the great song made famous by Nat King Cole, “L-O-V-E,” combined with “Almost Like Being in Love.” It was a fun opener, and it was followed by a superb version of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” written in 1914. As Michael said, “I like to keep it current.” Another highlight was a medley of the 1959 Frank Sinatra song “All My Tomorrows” with the 1969 hit single by the Spiral Staircase, “More Today than Yesterday.” It was an inventive pairing that worked very well together. 

Feinstein is a fount of pop culture knowledge, and I laughed very hard when he said that drummer Mark McLean would be playing Buddy Rich to Michael’s Sammy Davis during the song “Come Back to Me.” Feinstein then added, “But he’s much nicer than Buddy Rich!” (There are lots of stories about Buddy Rich being, um, not so nice to work with.) 

A surprise guest was singer and cabaret performer Lynne Rothrock, who performed a fun version of “Teach Me Tonight.” Other highlights of the evening included an exuberant version of “Hooray for Hollywood,” and of course, the Gershwin medley. Michael Feinstein worked as an assistant for Ira Gershwin for the last six years of Ira’s life, helping to catalogue Ira’s music collection. Feinstein was audibly emotional during the intro to “Our Love is Here to Stay,” as he recounted how George had written the music, but Ira didn’t put words to it until after George’s death. Thus, the song became Ira’s moving tribute to his dead brother. 

And Feinstein saved some of the best music for the last, as he performed a 12-song tribute medley to Frank Sinatra. It was a fitting way to end the evening, from one interpreter of the Great American Songbook to another.

Set list: (P=Michael Feinstein on piano)

L-O-V-E/Almost Like Being in Love

St. Louis Blues

Old Friend-p

All My Tomorrows/More Today than Yesterday

Wish You Were Here/So Far Away

Come Back to Me

When I Fall in Love/My Foolish Heart

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight/One Less Bell to Answer

Hooray for Hollywood

Blame it On My Youth-p

Gershwin Medley:

How Long Has This Been Going On?-p

Someone to Watch Over Me-p

Our Love is Here to Stay-p

Frank Sinatra medley:

Come Fly with Me

Witchcraft

A Foggy Day

I’ve Got the World on a String

Summer Wind

All or Nothing at All

I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry

Angel Eyes

That’s Life

Night and Day

I’ve Got You Under My Skin

You Make Me Feel So Young

Encore:

Isn’t it Romantic?-p

Michael Feinstein at Westminster Presbyterian Church

Michael Feinstein, 10/25/12. (Photo by Mark Taylor.)

Terrence Flannery, my wife Pondie, and me, 10/25/12.

Last week I heard Michael Feinstein speak at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. His talk, entitled “The Gershwins: Preserving an American Cultural Legacy,” was part of Westminster Church’s Town Hall Forum lecture series. Feinstein was promoting his new book, “The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs.” I haven’t read the book yet, so I can’t give a full review of it, but it’s a beautifully designed book about the music of George and Ira Gershwin. Feinstein uses twelve songs by the Gershwins as the framework to analyze their music. A CD of Feinstein performing the twelve songs is also included with the book. When Feinstein was 20 years old he started working for Ira Gershwin, and he helped Ira catalogue his music collection. For Feinstein, it was truly a dream job. He worked with Ira for six years, until Ira’s death in 1983. 

Feinstein is a very eloquent speaker, he’s knowledgeable without coming across as pedantic, and he has a great respect for music but he still likes to tell humorous anecdotes to enliven stories. When I heard him last week, he spoke extemporaneously in perfect paragraphs, with no verbal hesitations, no “um’s” or “ah’s” at all. As anyone who has watched Feinstein’s delightful “Great American Songbook” series on PBS knows, he has so much passion for the music of the Great American Songbook and for all music in general. It’s wonderful that American popular music has a steward as dedicated as Feinstein is to the preservation and dissemination of this music. During the program he spoke about the Gershwins, his relationship with Ira Gershwin, and he played a couple of songs on the piano, including “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and “Our Love Is Here to Stay.” He then took questions from the audience for about 20 minutes.

Michael Feinstein has been one of my favorite singers since I was a little kid; I was probably 8 or 9 when I first heard him, thanks to my Mom. His music was how I was first exposed to the music of the Great American Songbook. I remember listening with glee to his albums “The MGM Album” and “Over There,” a collection of songs from World War I. My favorite song on “Over There” was a tongue-twister called “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers.” I also remember seeing Feinstein in concert around that time, probably 1989-91. The first concerts that I can remember going to are Michael Feinstein, Harry Belafonte (I loved “Beetlejuice”!) and The Beach Boys. And even though my musical palate has expanded since then, I still love listening to Michael Feinstein, Harry Belafonte, and The Beach Boys. 

Michael signed copies of his book after the program, and he is such a nice person. I’ve met him once before, back in 2003 at a concert he did with Jimmy Webb, and I was struck then by his niceness too. My wife and I told Michael that friends of ours sang “Our Love Is Here to Stay” at our wedding. I can’t remember exactly what he said in response, but he was just so nice. He was also very nice to my Mom, as well, who also got her book signed. My wife and I also went over to talk to Michael’s husband, Terrence Flannery. We’ve enjoyed seeing Michael’s relationship with Terrence in the “Great American Songbook” series, and we recognized Terrence from the shows. Terrence was super nice to talk to; we visited with him for a few minutes, and even got our picture taken with him! It was a wonderful evening, and a lot of fun to hear Michael Feinstein talk about the music that he loves the most.

Michael Feinstein at Orchestra Hall

The singer/piano player and Great American Songbook archivist Michael Feinstein was at Orchestra Hall last month for two concerts that focused on his 2008 album, "The Sinatra Project." It was a fantastic concert, Michael's voice is as good as it has ever been, and I think this is one of his strongest albums. I've been a fan of Michael Feinstein's music for a long time, ever since I was about 9 or 10 years old, and he and Harry Connick were really my entry points into the Great American Songbook. (My appreciation for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bobby Darin would come in my teens.)

For those of you who need a little intro to Michael Feinstein, he worked as Ira Gershwin's archivist at the end of Ira's life, and then he started playing piano in clubs, which eventually led to a record deal. He's been making records since the mid-80's, at the pace of about one a year, most of which focus on songs from the Great American Songbook. Feinstein is dedicated to preserving the legacy of these songs, and he does deep research into them, often performing forgotten verses or special lyrics that were written for a radio show but never before recorded. He's as much an archivist and historian as a performer. It's clear from every song he sings that he really cares about these songs and loves them. But it doesn't mean that he treats them as musty museum pieces. On the contrary, he sees how these songs can still be vital in the 21st century. His PBS program, "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook," which aired last fall, gives viewers a closer look at what Feinstein does. From going to antique sales to cleaning out storage spaces of a composer who has passed away, Feinstein is always on the lookout for rare material. He's a terrific singer, with a pure tone, and you can always hear the happiness in his voice. His piano playing is also extraordinary, although he doesn't often feature his own playing on his records.

The "Sinatra Project" album is very good, in part because Feinstein isn't trying to imitate Frank, and most of the songs he sings on the album are not indelibly associated with Sinatra. He even sings one song that Sinatra never recorded, "The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye." (It was written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman for Sinatra, but he never recorded it, despite liking the song.) One of my favorite songs from the album is Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine." Sinatra only recorded "Beguine" in the 1940's, but Feinstein re-imagines it as arranged by Nelson Riddle, in the style of Sinatra's 1956 recording of "I've Got You Under My Skin." (Both songs use what Riddle called "the heartbeat rhythm," also a feature of Sinatra's recording of "Night and Day.") Feinstein swings hard on Porter's "It's All Right With Me," and it's nice to hear him sound a little more jazzy than he usually does.

In concert Feinstein added more songs associated with Sinatra, which makes me hope for a Volume 2 of the Sinatra Project. He led off with a medley of "Luck Be a Lady/All I Need Is the Girl," mixing one of Frank's most well-known swingers with an underrated gem. (Check out Frank's 1967 recording of "All I Need is the Girl," with Duke Ellington, it's amazing!) Feinstein is equally at home singing ballads or up-tempo songs. For most of the concert he just sang, but he would occasionally sing a song solo at the piano, which was wonderful to hear. You could have heard a pin drop when he sang a solo of "Time After Time." Beautiful. Feinstein has amazing control over his voice, and he seems to be using his upper range more, as he ends a lot of songs on a high falsetto, which is very affecting. Feinstein brings such a joyous energy to performing that you can't help but be charmed by him. (Although he didn't do any of his impersonations this time. In previous concerts he's veered into note-perfect mimicry of Liberace, Peter Lorre, and Jackie Mason.) Here are the songs that he sang, in mostly correct order:

Luck Be a Lady/All I Need is the Girl
I Thought About You
Exactly Like You
Time After Time
Brazil-instrumental
Fools Rush In
What Kind of Fool Am I?
Just One of Those Things
Once in a Lifetime
How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
Begin the Beguine
So In Love
All My Tomorrows/All the Way
I Remember You
For Once In My Life-which was apparently one of Frank's favorite songs, I had no idea!
Theme from New York, New York

All in all it was a wonderful concert, it's at least the fifth time I've seen Michael Feinstein in concert, and he never fails to put on a great show!