'57 LIVE IN CONCERT

1999 Artanis 24k Gold CD release of 1957 live recordings, numbered limited edition

ARR COND NELSON RIDDLE
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LIVE IN AUSTRALIA WITH THE RED NORVO QUINTET 1959

1997 Blue Note / Capitol CD release of 1959 live recordings

'57 LIVE IN CONCERT

1. Introduction/You Make Me Feel So Young
2. It Happened in Monterey
3. At Long Last Love
4. I Get a Kick Out of You
5. Just One of Those Things
6. Foggy Day
7. Lady Is a Tramp
8. They Can't Take That Away From Me
9. I Won't Dance
10. Sinatra Dialogue
11. When Your Lover Has Gone
12. Violets for Your Furs
13. My Funny Valentine
14. Glad to Be Unhappy
15. One for My Baby
16. Tender Trap
17. Hey Jealous Lover
18. I've Got You Under My Skin
19. Oh! Look at Me Now

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LIVE IN AUSTRALIA WITH THE RED NORVO QUINTET 1959


1. Perdido [Instrumental]
2. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea [Instrumental]
3. I Could Have Danced All Night
4. Just One of Those Things
5. I Get a Kick Out of You
6. At Long Last Love
7. Willow Weep for Me
8. I've Got You Under My Skin
9. Moonlight in Vermont
10. Lady Is a Tramp
11. Sinatra Speaks
12. Angel Eyes
13. Come Fly With Me
14. All the Way
15. Dancing in the Dark
16. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)
17. All of Me
18. On the Road to Mandalay
19. Night and Day

[Jake]

I have both, and although the Australia concert is of poor sound quality the two cds are a great part of my collection.

Oh, these two great Sinatra live shows from the 50s. Gosh, there must be a lot more material like this around. Such excitement! For instance, the Night & Day from the '59 concert is nothing short of spectacular. No exaggeration.

While the sound quality is definitely better on the '57 concert, stereo and all, both concerts are equally enjoyable. Such an array of wonderful songs sung only as Frank could sing them.

Dennis

[alan.murrie]

I cannot recommend this CD highly enough. This is a rare chance to hear Frank performing live with the Nelson Riddle band - and it is dynamite!!

The orchestra is immediately recognisable as that of Nelson Riddle's, with swinging power and punchy arrangements. Frank appears to be having a ball, as he glides effortlessly through a gang of great standards. It's difficult to pick highlights, since there are so many. At Long Last Love and The Lady Is A Tramp are just fantastic (the latter being very similar to the Pal Joey movie version), and there's an early performance of One For My Baby with Bill Miller that stands out.

A nice little touch in the liner notes comes in the form of a foreword by long-time Sinatra fan, Kelsey Grammer (TV's Frasier), who describes what Frank Sinatra means to him.

The 24-karat gold disc is very appropriate, as it is indicative of what a treasure this recording is.

The Capitol/Blue note CD "Live In Australia" you might call Frank Sinatra's quintessential Jazz swinging album. With The Voice at the very top of his game, this amounts to an absolutely sensational album. A few occasions from the early 80s aside, this album contains maybe Sinatra's best ever concert work with a small group, in this case, The Red Norvo Quintet.

As early as 1939, Frank had turned down an offer by Norvo and his (by then) wife Mildred Bailey to join their orchestra as male vocalist, because he had already signed with Harry James.

However, their relationship continued to be a close one, symbolized by Bill Miller, who before becoming Sinatra’s regular in 1951 had worked extensively with the Norvo Big Band. So in a sense, the 1959 teaming up was some “at long last” affair!

The CD liner notes by Will Friedwald, while offering a very poignant analysis of the vocal and interpreting genius Sinatra is on these recordings, contain some erraneous information that I think should be corrected.

1) In contrast to what both Friedwald’s liner notes and the Blue Note CD’s back sleeve repeatedly claim, this was a one-night-engagement, consisting of two shows on March 31, done at 6.15pm and 8.45 pm at Melbourne - there was definetly no show on April 1. To add confusion, Friedwald’s liner notes at one point erraneously state that Sinatra came over to perform “in Melbourne and Sydney”.

2) The CD repeatedly claims both of the Norvo instrumentals to come from the first show, while actually, ‘Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea’ was done at the first and ‘Perdido’ at the second performance - there was one instrumental opening each show before FS took the stage.
Also, the first pressings of the Blue Note distributed on the market did NOT include ‘Between The Devil’ as track 2 but just Norvo’s introduction for Sinatra – a mastering error. This was quickly corrected and the company generously replaced all the wrong copies sent back by customers.

3) The majority of Sinatra’s tracks on the CD come from the second show as indicated, but
a) In contrast to what is stated on the Blue Note back sleeve and in the liner notes, the final track “Night And Day” also comes from the second show.
b)“One For My Baby” was only performed on the first show, while “Angel Eyes” was done on the second (preceeding Come Fly With Me).
c) As for “On The Road To Mandalay”, the CD has the version from the first show, a fact that is mentioned in Friedwald’s liner notes but not on the CD’s back sleeve.

The somewhat limited sound quality of this release has also been mentioned now and then.

The main reason for that is that at the time there were no official plans to record the two Melbourne concerts. A recording of both events was made however by some Australian, something that today would be referred to as a 'bootleg' illegally recorded.

Being "spreaded" on tape and through various unofficial releases, these recordings eventually made it into the posession of Capitol who (to my ears) did an excellent job in offering the best possible sound from the original 'boot' tapes. It's still limited, but the absolute grandness of Sinatra's performances and the rare quintet setting makes you forget about that very quickly, in my opinion.

In this case, we got lucky, I think, that someone recorded it way back when - and also, that someone saw the impact of this legendary recordings and put them out on Blue Note. (Maybe, the remaining tracks mainly from the first show will also be officially issued some day, since Sinatra changed some of his approaches as he would often do with two shows on the same night).

In short - I think this album is a must for any Sinatra music lover.

Bernhard.

[steffen]

the 57' concert is extraordinary, much better to my ears than listening to the capitol studio songs. frank just comes more alive live /naturally.

the 59' concert always remains a bit obscure to me - because of the sound quality. anyway, KNOWING that this might not have originated from superior quality tape material, i am glad it survived and we can enjoy it.

"knowing" about those facts is important, to exclude disappointments, and i think it should be stated clearly.
(if it hasn't been stated in the booklet; it explains the inferior sound of one track, because it was taken from another night's performance. but i think it does not explain the overall hissing quality.)

Capitol didn't improve the quality an iota. Except for a couple of alternates, the label didn't have the original tape. I'd like to explain but I am not permitted. Cello mastered. A joke.

Thanks bvo35 for the excellent history. Even though the sound quality on this lp is challenging, I find myself drawn to the album often. Playing without the big orchestra, Frank hits several home runs on this one and registers a few misses as well. You feel him working hard here to deliver and I like hearing the "foreign" audience respond to this all-American music in the 1950's. My mind wanders and I wonder as I listen what it must have been like thousands of miles away from home to present this music so technology free----just a voice and a few guys backing you.
In that sense the lp seems groundbreaking to me. Today international tours are common fare backed with amazing tech and high dollars. But in the post world war era it was Sinatra and his voice and these gutsy musicians who paved the way for what was to come.

[Library Bob]

Haven't heard the "In Concert 57" CD, but the "Live in Australia" is something of a mixed blessing. By that, I meam execrable sound coupled with solid performances.

What a pity that FS and Red Norvo never had the chance to wotk together in the studio. Like the projected FS/Stan Kenton collaboration that didn't happen, it was yet another missed opportunity.

Both of the CD's are in my collection. Love them both but have a preferance for the Live in Australia. Frank really swings and croons in a way that I really love!

The year is 1959. Frank is hot, At the top of his game. Traveling with a great jazz band led by Red Norvo. (one of the true jazz greats)

Everything was going quite well in this concert - Frank doing songs like Btween The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea; I Could Have Danced All Night; I Get A Kick Out of You; Angel Eyes; Lady Is A Tramp, etc. and that awesome version of All Of Me. (Wow!!)
Thought we heard Frank do these songs many times before and after, yet they sounded different with Norvo - the vibes & all. And after all of this, Frank does Night & Day. The first time I heard this version, I just remained. No exaggeration. I honestly believe that this version of Night & Day exemplifies the genius of Frank Sinatra. I really mean it. Talk about Jazz singing. This version just builds up and up. Smokin. Frank was not considered a true jazz singer & yet I never heard even a jazz singer do anything like Frank did with Night & Day.

It's singing like this that reaffirms my belief that there truly was no one like Frank Sinatra and probably never will be either.

It's just too bad Frank didn't do an album with Norvo. It would have been magnificent.


If you don't own this album, you don't know what you're missing.

[MMM]

Best version of "Night and Day" EVER, though the Columbia version (on the blue box) is a close second IMO.

[Watertown]

On 57', Oh Look At Me Now, and It Happened in Monteray (sp) are much more powerful than the original Capitol recordings. I would love to have more concerts with the big band released from this era. They really did a great job with the sound too. Absolute must have.

In the '57 concert, isn't that just an awesome version of the Lady is a Tramp. I have never heard anything quite like it.

[pattisam]

I purchased the concert with Red, about 3 months ago, and it is hard to get over the sound quality. I thought maybe it was just my particular CD. I'm happy to have found this thread -- again a big thanks to Rick for starting this, and all the detailed track threads.

I'm ashamed to say, I bought the '57 a year, or so, ago and haven't opened it - the packaging is too pretty! But, from what you all say, it is a must to listen to. I guess I thought I could listen through osmosis.

Great thoughts, great minds...thanks guys!

Sinatra did two concerts each night on June 8 at Vancouver and June 9 at Seattle in 1957, and all of them seem to have been recorded by Wally Heider upon Sinatra's request. Because of the live recordings scheduled, he reportedly brought along some of his key Capitol studio musicians for the tour.

One show from each night surfaced on some unofficial releases (vinyl and later CD) a long time ago, including the Seattle one that eventually got his official release on the Artanis CD more recently.

So if the Wally Heider tapes from the Vancouver show are also within the reach/posession of the Family archives, we might see that show officially released soon, too.

I'm mentioning this because on the 1st Vancouver concert, Sinatra, having done a fine rendition of "Tramp" similar to the one heard on Seattle, simply asked his band to "do it again right now". And upon probable remarks from the band: "yes, same song!" And then he does it again! I don't know of any other such thing happening during a Sinatra show. Needless to say that obviously both "takes" were worth the listening, the audience liked them.

A tidbit: The 1st Seattle concert as released by Artanis is not complete. It lacks the final song (which was "Night And Day"), which was already missing on previous unofficial releases.


Bernhard.

[chadham]

Recorded on June 9, 1957
Arrangements by Nelson Riddle
Executive Producer: Tina Sinatra
Producer: Roberto Quartin

A great collection of Frank Sinatra's art. I ran a search here and did not see a previous mention of it. In addition to the music, it contains almost five minutes of dialogue by Frank Sinatra himself. thanks, chad

Chad, wholeheartedly agree. This is a fantastic "live" performance in Seattle, Washington. I adore Mr. S. in his live performances. I was fortunate enuf to find one of the 24 karat gold discs, limited edition, numbered, etc.. I don't know, perhaps they're all like that, but I think it's a real treasure.

The intro into the notes by Kelsey Grammer were wonderful, and the balance of the liner notes by Will Friedwald (as always) are supurb. "Like the man says, from start to finish, it's been a great big mothery ball."

It's a MUST in anyones collection! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Can't believe there isn't a thread as this is one of his best live recordings. This is the CD cover picture!