Monthly BIRTHDAY SALUTE to a Major Cabaret Figure

September has arrived, so it’s time for our regular feature — the Birthday Salute, honoring someone important in the world of cabaret who was born in the current month.  Who could it be?  Here are some hints….

Our Birthday Honoree was born in the same state as Doris Day, Kaye Ballard, Dean Martin, Joel Grey, Maureen McGovern, Nancy Wilson, The Mills Brothers, Lee Adams, Billy Strayhorn, Henry Mancini, Thomas Edison, Neil Armstrong, NYC’s famous Naked Cowboy, and eight US presidents.  

Our Birthday Honoree appeared in the TV movie For Love Alone, based on the novel by Ivana Trump, co-wrote and performed its title song. Other songwriting collaborators have included Maya Angelou, Bob Merrill, and Marilyn & Alan Bergman.

Our Birthday Honoree spent several years as assistant to one of the most famous lyricists of the Great American Songbook.

Our Birthday Honoree has recorded separate albums dedicated to the work of Irving Berlin, Harry Warren, Andre Previn, Jerry Herman, Burton Lane, Jule Styne, Jimmy Webb, Hugh Martin, Livingston & Evans, and the Gershwins.

Our Birthday Honoree has sung on stage and/or disc with Rosemary Clooney, Barbara Cook, Marilyn Maye, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Ebersole, Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton, and Pink Martini…among others.

Our Birthday Honoree is a male singer, pianist, and conductor who has the same middle name as Don Rickles, Homer Simpson, and a major writer of lyrics and scripts who had three Academy Awards, three Tony Awards, and eight wives. 

Our Birthday Honoree has championed the Great American Songbook in TV specials, a radio series, books, a foundation, an archive, and a program for high school singers.

Our Birthday Honoree has performed in Carnegie Hall, Buckingham Palace, the White House, the Sydney Opera House, and many nightclubs, including those bearing his name.  

Our Birthday Honoree is currently on tour with his Tony Bennett tribute show. 

Our Birthday Honoree’s birthday is September 7. He’s not taking the night off. He’ll be in California as conductor of the Pasadena Pops with Broadway veterans Victoria Clark and Norm Lewis singing.

Our Birthday Honoree is Ohio-born Michael Jay Feinstein, performer and preserver and protector of The Great American Songbook.  This talented man shares his birthday with Queen Elizabeth I, Grandma Moses, Buddy Holly, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the French concert pianist with whom he performed in a duo piano concert. They released a joint recording this year, Michael Feinstein’s latest is a series of albums that began in 1985– with Pure Gershwin, featuring many of the melodies of George and the words of Ira, the lyricist he was assistant to in his 20s.  Cheers and thanks to Michael Feinstein!  

                                         

                                       Photo: Stephen Sorokoff

 

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