The timeless cool of Frank Sinatra met the robust swing of the Count Basie Orchestra on the classic album, ‘Sinatra at the Sands’ and it has remained a beloved classic ever since, the perfect marriage of old-school pop and big band jazz. Singer, songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers has been bringing those worlds together in his own music for the last three decades (along with touches of nearly every other genre one could call to mind), which makes him an ideal candidate to reinterpret Ol’ Blue Eyes’ cherished repertoire for modern ears. On his twelfth album and ninth release for Concord Records, One More for the Road, Stigers captures the rare alchemy of hipness, elegance, playfulness and feeling that made Sinatra’s renditions of these songs immortal while adding his own unique twist. Now, Stigers hooks up with the Ryan Quigley Big Band to play the vibrant takes based on the original Nelson Riddle and Billy May arrangements, in Scotland. Singing in front of a great band executing flawless reinvigorations of those arrangements “is just extraordinary,” Stigers said. “It’s like sex. I don’t think there’s a more swinging band in the history of music than the Count Basie Orchestra. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had, and I think it shows on the record. “Singing these songs live is a lot of fun. I try not to sing like Sinatra, but there’s no way that some Sinatra doesn’t get in there. There are certain phrasings that he used that work so… [Read full story]
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