In Sinatra & Beyond, singer-songwriter-pianist Tony DeSare does things his way
The New York City-based artist joins Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with his signature concert
Tony DeSare.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents Tony DeSare: Sinatra & Beyond on January 27 and 28 at the Orpheum Theatre at 8 pm
NEW YORK CITY-based singer-songwriter-pianist Tony DeSare is an expert in the Frank Sinatra catalogue. However, that doesn’t mean that his versions of songs such as “Come Fly with Me”, “I Get A Kick Out of You”, and “I’ve Got the World On a String” sound just like Ol’ Blue Eyes. Rather, DeSare does things his way.
Speaking to Stir on the line from an Atlanta tour stop, DeSare is bringing his signature program to the West Coast, performing Sinatra & Beyond in concert with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His interpretations of entries in the Great American Songbook are not carbon copies.
“It’s important to keep the genre feeling fresh and surprising,” DeSare says. “I didn’t want the show to be something that people would know exactly what they’re getting. The challenge is to take the risk, to do some things that will surprise them—in a good way.
“I’ve honed the show with my band for many years; we love doing it, and audiences really seem to love it,” he adds. “We do a few originals, but the common thread is, if you love Sinatra and you love the art form, you’ll love the show. I often think, ‘What if Frank Sinatra actually came to this show?’ I’d want him to approve.”
Having previously performed in a long-running cabaret review in New York City called Our Sinatra, DeSare describes the “Chairman of the Board” as a musical trailblazer. “Some people may have pre-formed opinions about Frank Sinatra—based on his personality or his life, his reputation—but his contribution to the art form of American music is undeniable. He worked with the best of the best. His team of audio engineers, they were like scientists back then. He wrote the first concept album. He created these masterpieces, like Picassos.”
DeSare has been playing with symphony orchestras since 2007, though he says it took about four years until this type of collaboration became a regular thing. He has since appeared with more than 100 large-scale ensembles, including the New York Pops, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, among many others.
“The only thing better than playing music is playing it and sharing it with someone else; it’s the ultimate form of communication,” DeSare says. “You can say a lot in a 32-bar song, and there’s that sense of community that happens—especially in a theatre with an orchestra, when you have 80 people on stage and 2,000 people watching.
“It’s so much fun and such a privilege of hosting that and helping that along,” says DeSare. “I never take it for granted when I’m about to walk on stage.”
Music was always around DeSare while he was growing up in Glen Falls, New York; every night after dinner, his dad would pick up his guitar and sing. Even though he had picked up piano early in life and started performing around age 17, DeSare played violin all through school. With four top 10 Billboard jazz albums to his name, he was championed early in his career by acclaimed guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and wrote the theme song for the feature film My Date With Drew.
Sinatra and Beyond includes some of the legendary entertainer’s classics as well a few of DeSare’s own songs—which he describes as being written in the style of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. The show, which in Vancouver will be conducted by the VSO’s Andrew Crust, also features numbers by other artists, including Prince and Billy Joel. While some people might be inclined to call him a “crooner”, DeSare isn’t convinced the term fits.
“With ‘crooner’ I think more of Bing Crosby or a specific kind of soft style, like Chet Baker,” DeSare says. “Frank in his early years I would call a crooner, but my approach is more full-chested, more bel canto influence, more pop singing. It’s more energetic, more swinging. My only reservation with crooner is it sounds kind of slow and boring, and that's not what I do."
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