Review: BLUE SKIES: AN AMERICAN SONG BOOK By Mario Frangoulis

Just what is the American Songbook?

According to WikiPedia, the expression: "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.

The phrase was first used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe obscenity. Paraphrasing Stewart: "I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I know it when I see it."

The same might be said about the Great American Song book. No, it's not obscene! But yes, it is hard to accurately describe or codify. But I know it when I hear it! So, just what is the Great American Songbook? The Great American Songbook represents the finest and most enduring American songs from the 20th Century, most often including works by such songwriters as Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart and Johnny Mercer.

Essentially, the songs are timeless and in the world of jazz, big band and swing, the songs are considered "standards." Most have been immortalized over and over in musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. As testimony to their enduring staying power, numerous artists such as Harry Connick Jr., Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, and even Rod Stewart have continued to have hits with them.

The latest and most worthy entry is the new double album and DVD from classical crossover star, Mario Frangoulis. The Greek superstar who has already shown his great flexibility in Opera, classical, crossover, and pop, now adds great American standard to his vast musical repertory.

The songs of the Great American Songbook typically feature clever, witty lyrics and languid phrasing. Frangoulis handles the jazzy rhythms and rhymes like an old pro and has far more legitimate vocal capacity than any of the aforementioned pop singers trying their hand at the style.

The real task in performing these standards is often not merely having the vocal chops, but possessing the stylistic panache to make the well-worn melodies fresh: Frangoulis has this quality in abundance. On "Blue Skies" he presents a lovely, eclectic blend of old, older and not-so-old, standards in fresh new arrangements.

The 1930s through the 1950s were a truly golden era, not just of songwriters, but lyricists, and the often unsung heroes, arrangers! The ability to have a lyric float effortlessly over the music is not an effortless project! Consequently, the temptation to simply recreate the famous original arrangements is great, but Frangoulis wisely forbore the temptation and delivers a potpourri of familiar and not-so-familiar melodies in clean, clear modern arrangements for 2021.

The more rhythmic numbers like Rosemary Clooney's hit "Sway" and the Latin-flavored, "Quando, Quando, Quando" are particular stand-outs. In a nod to his musical theater past, Frangoulis delivers an exquisite take on Rodgers and Hammerstein's, "We Kiss in a Shadow."

Frangoulis is renown for singing in a myriad of languages, and while he confines himself to English on this program, he does sing two classic French chansons - in English: Michel Legrand's touching "I Will Wait for You," and the Jacques Brel chestnut, "If You Go Away," (based on "Ne me quitte pas"). These nostalgic, European-tinged, romantic numbers are where Frangoulis really struts his stuff. There are truly few singers in the world that can match him in this material.

Frangoulis is joined on "Blue Skies" by the marvelous jazz singer, Tammy McCann, whose plush and velvety pipes grace two numbers on the CD. Ms. McCann is the real deal. Equally adept as a belter and a crooner, McCann offers a sultry masterclass in phrasing on Cole Porter's "From This Moment On."

In the "Blue Skies" set, Frangoulis presents a very strong case for why these songs have been with us for generations and through performances like these, why they will continue to be a vital part of the popular music canon.

Here's hoping he chooses to bring this program of songs across the pond to America!

The CD and DVD were sponsored by the Horatio Alger Foundation, for whom Frangoulis serves as an ambassador.

-Peter Danish

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