The ‘Chairman of the Board’ presides at SPAC
by Dick Brooks, The Saratogian
As a vintage wine, Frank Sinatra whetted his talent as the evening progressed.
Sinatra quenched the palate of a nostalgia-hungry audience Monday. As the evening flitted away at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Sinatra sporadically recaptured his once magical tones and provided a delicacy of rare showmanship that comes along few times in a generation.
Arriving some 30 minutes late, Sinatra sauntered onto stage dressed in a white mod outfit and slid into ‘Who Knows Where or When.” With a harshness in his voice, which cracked at times, he stepped to the edge of the stage and delivered “Let Me Try Again”. It indeed brought many tender-hearted ladies fantasizing back to the years of their youth.
Swatting away a mosquito he described as a “Jersey mosquito,” Sinatra really arrived with his next rendition. “My Kind of Town, Chicago Is” provided flashes of his old showmanship, embellished by strong, timely accompaniment by the orchestra conducted by Bill Miller. Sinatra said he and Dean Martin won Miller in a dice game.
Exhibiting a hip, cool style about the stage and offering humorous anecdotes about love, the birth of his first grandchild – a daughter to Nancy Sinatra – he said he “reached into his bag of books for this song – The bag fought a
lot, but gave it up.” He then reached the ladies with “Let’s Take It Nice and Easy,” and segued into “Something In the Way She Moves” with his hip, flirtatious delivery.
Kidding that a little Arab delivered this song to him about six years ago, and “he should have brought me some oil, but I did make a lot of oil on it,” he offered “I Did It My Way.” Sinatra mused that he sang the song under protest.
It was a stirring rendition. In parts, he belted out this work of Paul Anka, then stirred the sensuality of his audience with soft romancing, which was greeted by a standing ovation. Sinatra offered: “Aw sit down, we’re all friends here.” And kiddingly added, “It’s sure nice to be here in Saugerties.”
Imbibing from a cup provided by an aide, Sinatra said, “It’s tea and honey. You believe that, and I’ll sell you some land I have in Newark. It’s under water.”
Someone then shouted from the balcony, to which Sinatra replied while shading his eyes: “Where the hell are you, in Albany?”
A woman shouted, “I love you Blue Eyes.” Sinatra replied, “You think I got Blue Eyes. You should see them in the morning. They look like road maps.”
Toward the end of his approximately hour-long concert. Sinatra wound down with Cole Porter’s “I Concentrate On
You,” in a soft, intimate fashion, and segued with bounce and gusto to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
It provided an instant flashback of his old dynamic self. Between songs, Sinatra drawled, “One good Cole Porter song deserves another. I read that on a bottle somewhere.”
Introducing James Van Heusen, who was sitting in the audience, he rolled into a Van Heusen classic, “Funny But that Rainy Day is Here”, and concluded his well-received concert with “Put Your Dreams Away for Another Day.”
The Sinatra simpatico oozed through even though golden tones have worn through the years. His inimitable style of cool, hip and instant creativity was only distantly approached by the late Bobby Darrin. There can be only one Chairman of the Board, and he did indeed preside at SPAC last night.
Warming up the enthusiastic audience were “The Little Steps,” sons of the Four Step Brothers. The quartet offered a tremendous acrobat-dance act that had the crowd both amazed in their physical agility and roaring with their comedy. The diminutive entertainers provided such dances as the Snake, Soul Train Special, Hustle, Baseball and the Old Man Walking, and concluded with the Bump.
Comedian Pat Henry, alluding to his friends, Vincent DeGregory Sr. of Saratoga Springs, and Joe DeCario of Schenectady, remarked: “I’m not making any jokes about Frank Sinatra. Two weeks ago, Sinatra told Jimmy Hoffa to get lost, and look what happened.”
Henry, however, chose to get risque, asserting that Frank once made love to a deaf and dumb girl. He then broke her fingers so she couldn’t tell on him.” Another Henry special concerned acupuncture. “Acupuncture is nothing new; it was started about 20 years ago by the Italians in the Bronx. Only they used ice picks.”
Sensing that the headliner would be late, Henry said, “Don’t worry Frank will be here. He’s walking across the lake.”
His method of “getting off stage” was this flip remark: “I think you’re ready for the Boss.”
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