Feinstein's at Loews Regency, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, will continue its 10th Anniversary season with the return of the club's founder Michael Feinstein for an exclusive engagement from December 2 - 30. Musical Director John Oddo will lead a 17-piece band featuring Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Jim Saporito on drums, and David Finck on bass. This September, Michael sold out a week at the club celebrating his new CD "The Sinatra Project."
By popular demand, he will bring back the great romantic songs performed by "Ol' Blue Eyes" and combine them with seasonal classics into the new program "The Sinatra Holiday Project." Antonia Bennett, the acclaimed vocalist, will be his special guest for the run. All shows take place at the Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street).
"For years I've wanted to celebrate Sinatra's musical sensibilities, but I have no desire to copy the classic songs that he rendered better than anyone else. I wanted to create an album that would explore his style of singing and his style of music" comments Feinstein. The album was recorded as it would have been fifty years ago, in the famous last surviving recording studio from the days of stereo, Capital Studio A in Hollywood. The CD is comprised of classics such as "Fools Rush In," "I've Got a Crush on You," "At Last Love," "Exactly Like You," and many more.
Feinstein also recorded two lost gems: "The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye" - written for Sinatra by John Williams and Alan & Marilyn Bergman, but never performed - and "How Long Will It Last," recorded by Sinatra in the late 1940's, but aborted in the studio and never released. The latter track was conceived, arranged and performed in collaboration with Pink Martini, the critically-acclaimed retro-pop-jazz orchestra.
Michael Feinstein, one of the premiere interpreters of American popular song, has been a household name since the success of his 1988 one-man Broadway show, Isn't It Romantic. He enjoys an active performance calendar, including major concert halls, symphony orchestras, intimate jazz clubs and college campuses. More than a mere performer, he is nationally recognized for his commitment to the American popular song, both celebrating its art and preserving its legacy for the next generation.
Feinstein is currently co-producing the upcoming biopic of George Gershwin, produced by Oscar winner Marc Platt (American Beauty) and written by Pulitzer Prize winnerDoug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens). He is also preparing the PBS-TV series, "Michael Feinstein: In Search Of," which discovers treasures of popular music around the world, to start airing in 2010. Michael is designing a new piano for Steinway called "The First Ladies," inspired by the White House piano.
Feinstein will also serve as the Artistic director of the Carmel Performing Arts Center, a $160 million three-theatre performing arts center in Carmel, Indiana which will host an annual international Great American Songbook festival, along with diverse live programming and a museum to house his rare memorabilia and manuscripts. Michael has written the score for two new stage musicals: The Day They Saved Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and The Gold Room, the latter scheduled to open in London's West End.
His previous CD from Concord Records is Hopeless Romantics, a songbook of Harry Warren classics recorded with legendary jazz pianist George Shearing. In 2004, Michael completed a national tour with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb based on their CD, Only One Life - The Songs of Jimmy Webb. The disc was named one of "10 Best CDs of the Year" by USA Today.
In 2003 he received his fourth Grammy Award nomination for his Concord Records release, Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, his first recording with a symphony orchestra. Recently he hosted and produced The Great American Songbook, a PBS Special and DVD set from Warner Brothers that traces the history of popular music in our country and debuted at the Palm Springs Film Festival.
Michael started playing piano by ear when he was five and, as a teenager, he played at weddings and parties in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano lounges for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. Through the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. He became his assistant for six years, granting him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, which he has since performed and recorded. Gershwin's influence provided a solid base upon which Michael has evolved into a captivating performer, composer and arranger of his own original music, and an unparalleled interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin,Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Duke Ellington.
Antonia Bennett, according to The New York Times, has a singing voice that "conjures echoes of Billie Holiday and Ricki Lee Jones, with a hint of Betty Boop." Since the age of four, Antonia Bennett has been gracing the stage and serenading audiences internationally alongside her world-renowned father, Tony Bennett. In fact, some of those early performances were with the legendary American jazz icon Count Basie. Having spent most of her life in Los Angeles and New York City and coming from a show business family, Antonia Bennett was surrounded by and received praise from such greats as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Rosemary Clooney, Les Paul and Ella Fitzgerald, so it was inevitable that she would be infected with a passion for the arts. A recipient of the David Award presented by the "Italo-American National Union" (the oldest Italian-American fraternal organization in America), Antonia is an alumnus of the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston. Ms. Bennett has performed in opera houses, casinos, jazz clubs and amphitheaters worldwide.
Feinstein's at Loews Regency will play the following schedule: Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:30 PM. For this engagement only, there will be shows at 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. PLEASE NOTE: there will be no 10:00 PM show on Christmas Day (Thursday, December 25). Performances have $95.00 general admission seats, $125.00 regular seats and $250.00 up-front seats, all with a $40.00 food and beverage minimum. Jackets are suggested but not required. The club is located at 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street in New York City. For ticket reservations and club information, please call (212) 339-4095 or visit us online at feinsteinsatloewsregency.com and TicketWeb.com.
Photos Courtesy of Feinstein's
Michael Feinstein and Tony Bennett
Michael Feinstein
Robert Osborne, Arlene Dahl, Michael Feinstein and Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett, Antonia Bennett and Michael Feinstein
