Sinatra 100 - The War Inside Years - 1940's

Date
December 11, 2015

Miracler
Nick Dedina

Location
San Francisco

Liner Notes from ND

Sinatra – The War Inside Years

This is the Sinatra that people don’t listen to much anymore (myself included).

It’s also extremely charming stuff – this is the “Aw, shucks Ma’am” Sinatra who was portrayed as a skinny chicken in those cartoons with an older, wiser Bing Crosby chicken. The same guy who almost passed out trying to inhale the marijuana fumes coming from the back of the tour bus when he joined Harry James band. The guy whom men didn’t like so much as women, jazz musicians and jazz fans did (so, so different from Real Men).

This is the also the Sinatra who Sonny Rollins said helped direct his life. Part of the first gifted, pull-out program in NYC, the teenage Rollins suffered garbage thrown at him, physical harm and death threats before he even got to school (he told me the parents were worse than the kids). Sinatra and Nat Cole went to the school. Rollins said Cole didn’t say a word but Frank straightened things out to an extent that even the parents accepted Rollins after that and he ended up receiving a university level music education in high school.

Most of this stuff is small group jazz because it has aged so well. This was Frankie’s prime era when orchestral ballads were his main bread and butter, though I think his later ballads for Capitol and Reprise cut way deeper and remain definitive. The couple of War Years ones I put below are just beautiful though – “There’s No You” is one of many songs from the time with a real WW2 subtext. “Why Was I Born” shows the new emotional side FS brought to music – both Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane interpreted their versions through this one. And, check out this “Night and Day” with versions on the other sets.

The phrasing is different here. This is the hardest singing to do – very long, very slow connected lines. People thought Frankie had mastered the secret art of circular breathing but he worked out – he swam underwater and would sing in his head without breathing – he didn’t want his breaths to ruin a complete thought. This also made his stuff less sing-song-y and based on the melodic pattern. He would still sing this way later but would also become much more rhythmically dexterous.

But even here, Sinatra swung. Check out the different feel of the trio and big band versions of “Blue Skies” – he's always changes the feel, depending on the backing.

I wish he would have officially recorded with Benny Goodman and the wonderful, now forgotten Johnny Guarnieri (whose extreme alcoholism lost him full-time gigs with Sinatra, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Ben Webster and so many others – and all of those guys really drank!!).

Remember that scene in 'Ray' where people were shocked, SHOCKED that gospel was mixed with the devil’s music?? Sy Oliver did that 20 years previously with his big hit “Yes, Indeed!” (Ray Charles covered it as a tip of the hat) – I like how Frankie adlibs “Groovy like a movie” – I had no idea people used the word “groovy” in 1946.

Also, Xavier Cugat is the single coolest name that has ever existed in the entire history of planet earth.

The string charts are by Alex Stordahl and the big band ones are by George Siravo.

1. Sweet Lorraine (With The Metronome All-Star Soloists)

2. S'uposin' (with The Johnny Guarnieri Trio)

3. There's No You

4. Only Have Eyes For You (with The Benny Goodman Septet)

5. That's How Much I Love You (with the Page Cavanaugh Trio)

6 - 13. Live Jazz Medley (with Skitch Henderson Trio)

14. Why Was I Born

15. I've Got A Crush On You (with Bobby Hackett)

16. All of Me

17. Why Can't You Behave (with The Phil Moore Four)

18. My Sugar Is So Refined

19. You Can Take My Word For It, Baby (with Page Cavanaugh Trio)

20. Yes, Indeed! (with Sy Oliver)

21. The Coffee Song (with Xavier Cugat)

22. Night and Day

23. Stormy Weather

24. Blue Skies

25. One For My Baby

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