Big City Rhythms

Read About This Recording

Throughout his career, Michael Feinstein has usually performed and recorded in intimate settings, making Big City Rhythms a rather unique project.

Feinstein has for decades been the most famous of all cabaret singer-pianists. In 1977, he was hired by Ira Gershwin to organize the Gershwin archives, his main job for the six years before Ira's death. By 1984, when he launched his performing career, Feinstein was an expert on vintage American popular songs. He filled a niche, was always a winning performer and his work has resulted in many formerly obscure songs being rediscovered.

Big City Rhythms is quite unusual for it teams Feinstein with Maynard Ferguson's big band. Ferguson, a phenomenal high note trumpeter since the late 1940s, had led many orchestras since then, ranging from bebop to funk and always featuring his stratospheric notes.

While Maynard Ferguson's band is mostly in a supportive role throughout this 1999 set, Ferguson gets in plenty of blasts. However Feinstein is the main star and he sounds inspired by the band's backing on such tunes as "Close Your Eyes," "Girl Talk," "Swing Is Back In Style" and "Lullaby In Rhythm." He emphasizes songs that he had not previously recorded and the result is an unlikely, but successful, collaboration.

—Scott Yanow

Product Info

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Contents

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Close Your Eyes; The Very Thought of You; Let Me Off Uptown; Girl Talk; You Can't Lose 'em All; One Day At a Time; The Rhythm of the Blues; The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else; Ev'rything You Want is Here; Johnny One Note; Swing is Back in Style; Love is Nothin' but a Racket; Lullaby in Rhythm; Medley: When Your Lover Has Gone/The Gal That Got Away; New York, New York; How Little We Know.

Michael Feinstein, Vocals, with Maynard Ferguson Big Band.