Track Listing

1. Pennies From Heaven
2. Please Be Kind
3. Tender Trap
4. Looking At The World Through Rose Coloured Glasses
5. My Kind Of Girl
6. I Only Have Eyes For You
7. Nice Work If You Can Get It
8. Learnin' The Blues
9. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
10. I Won't Dance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52359 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-21
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first of three albums that Frank Sinatra recorded with swing legend Count Basie, Sinatra-Basie is also the best. Sinatra's voice doesn't sound in great shape, but he pushes himself throughout to keep up with the jazzy twists and turns of Basie's band; the resulting tension makes for a thrilling listening experience, especially for those who think of Sinatra as more of a saloon balladeer than a jazz singer. "Learnin' the Blues", "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "(Love Is) the Tender Trap" are the highlights of the set, but all ten of the tracks are winners. --Dan Epstein

CD Description
In 1962, Sinatra was probably still giddy with the freedom afforded him by the foundation of his year-old label Reprise. It was in that year that he sought out Count Basie, whom he'd long admired, to record a collaborative album. While Sinatra's work with arranger Billy May stands as some of the most swinging work in either man's career, its tough to out-swing the Count. Basie's blues-influenced big-band sound givesSinatra an unequalled rhythmic push throughout this album, which truly deserves its "historic" reputation.
Brassy, bold, uptempo numbers are the order of the day on SINATRA-BASIE, and the buoyancy of "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Pennies From Heaven" benefits greatly from both Sinatra's warm-hearted enthusiasm and Basie's earthy swing. Even the ballad "I Only Have Eyes for You" is reworked here into a toe-tapper. And with such luminaries as trumpeter Thad Jones and guitarist Freddie Green behind the Basie bandstand, the musicianship is flawless, simultaneously precise and soulful.

Customer Reviews

Sinatra at the jazz pinnacle of his career
If you liked 'Songs for Swinging Lovers', you'll love the more sophisticated jazz of this later take on that Sinatra magic. Post-Nelson Riddle and pre-Quincy Jones, this is mid-period Sinatra at his best. The songs are sublime and Basie's deceptively simple arrangements and superb piano give that famous voice room to breathe. If you have yet to own a Sinatra album, make sure it's this one.

Arrogant, Brash, In Your Face, Full of Attitude and I absolutely love it!
I own every one of Sinatra's studio albums and this is among the best as it perfectly captures a vocal master in his prime who oozes confidence and ease in every lyric . A meeting of two musical giants and something that is not to be missed for any jazz, Basie or Sinatra fan.

In this album we see a wonderful blend of classic old songs such as "I Won't Dance" and "Learnin' The Blues" and new first time Sinatra recordings of songs such as "My Kinda Girl", and the effect is masterful. Whether you like hearing songs you have never heard before or new and very different versions of classic Sinatra standards, this album will not disappoint.

In this album we see "in your face" simplicity. Sinatra's singing is masterfully raw and full of passionate attitude, just compare an old recording of "Tender Trap" with this version to see this for yourself. This album does not attempt to be an emotional listen, it is designed to make you want to dance and sing along. Do not expect the tenderness of a concept album, this is pure hardcore swing at its very best. If it must be compared to any Sinatra album, whilst different, it shares a great deal of feeling with "Come Dance With Me" and "Sinatra and Swingin' Brass".

The arrangements are simple and brash and make no apologies for themselves, and the reason it works so well, and is in fact bettered despite this brashness, is because the musicianship is to such a high calibre. Each note from Basie and his orchestra just inspires Sinatra to sing a little louder and inspires the listener to listen a little harder. I do no think the album's dynamics drop below Mezzo Forte at any point. On the album approximately half the tracks have wonderful instrumentals. The instrumentals are not long enough as to bore the listener, however they grant a wonderful break in the song for the listener to enjoy the arrangement as a pure piece of music.

For me the star track from this album is "My Kinda Girl" however for me this album produces the definitive versions of "I only have eyes for you" and "Pennies from Heaven" not just from Sinatra, but from any Singer.

A rare album to find, if you see it, buy it no matter what the cost.

Swaggering cool
I grew up a child of the 60's and for my generation Sinatra was sort of symbolic of everything that we were seeking to overturn. He was what my Nan and Grandad listened to. He wore a suit and cut his hair. And 'My Way' was the song of an old man at the end of his life.

Only when I got to University and having started listening to jazz of various kinds, did a friend of mine, who's tastes I generally respected, say "Here, you've got to listen to this". When I saw what he was putting on my eyes bulged in horror' but with the first few bars of 'Pennies from Heaven' I was bowled over, and it went on to become a firm favourite for our whole circle of friends. I watched the same process of horror turn to a huge grin several times more.

This album is so cool and has an elegance that has been completely lost in the intervening decades. It brims with a confidence and a self reliance that you just don't hear in the plaintive whining of most modern popular music.

The track 'Looking at the World through Rose Coloured Glasses' has been life changing for me insofar as the line 'In a bungalow all covered with Roses' came to define my ambitions of later life, and I still find myself singing that song while I tend to my roses outside my bungalow.

My favourite track is 'Learnin' the Blues' which is a perfect example of what happens when the Blues as sung by the time-honoured jilted male meets the elegance of Jazz, and is turned into something hard but dignified. Basie's band is brass at its most shiny and brash and it swings as hard as granite.

I never bothered checking out any more Sinatra after this for a very long while, because I didn't want to risk the disappointment of finding the Sinatra I had kind of shunned in my formative years. Only many years later did I discover he'd done an album with Jobim Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim and I let myself get blown away by 'the voice' all over again. But that's another story.