Michael Feinstein – Courtesy of Tina Brannum Mahern. Used by permission
Michael Feinstein – Courtesy of Tina Brannum Mahern. Used by permission
Five-time Grammy nominee Michael Feinstein headlined “Celebrate the Songbook,” a concert at the Palladium on Saturday that offered a primer on classic popular music. The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Kramer, accompanied the renowned Feinstein, celebrated as the Ambassador of the Great American Songbook.
Playing to a full house, Feinstein’s concert, which had a Las Vegas-style feel, featured songs written by many of the most important composers of pop music from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Always the clever raconteur, the youthful-looking Feinstein regaled his engaged audience not only through song but also with his encyclopedic knowledge of Songbook history, its canon, and the notable figures who created and performed it, all delivered with his signature dry sense of humor. Feinstein has had personal connections with many show business icons and was greatly influenced by them.
Michael Feinstein – Courtesy of Tina Brannum Mahern. Used by permission.
After a while, it also became apparent that the concert was a formidable promotional vehicle for the Great American Songbook Foundation, which Feinstein founded and which is headquartered at the Center. The occasion was also an opportunity for the crooner, who is also the artistic director for the Allied Solutions Center of the Performing Arts to inform the audience regarding the foundation’s extensive collection of archival materials, and artifacts related to The Great American Songbook that will eventually be housed at a new Hall of Fame building that is to be built near the Center. Lastly, he also spoke of the Songbook Academy, a summer intensive for high school students.
As far as the concert itself, the ICO, under Kramer’s baton, was exceptional in its artistry, execution, and musicianship of its players. Feinstein was his usual affable self, vocally and through his delivery of the classics he lovingly interpreted.
Act 1 included a medley of composer Harry Warren’s music, Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and “You Can’t Take That Away From Me,” by George and Ira Gershwin. Act II highlights included an
instrumental of “Oklahoma,” along with Hart & Rogers’ “Isn’t It Romantic” and “Falling In Love.” There was also a Broadway medley and “Moon River.”
The evening served as an effective pitch for Feinstein’s Great American Foundation, thanks to his passion and the high quality of the entertainment, and of course, the opportunity to experience nostalgia while hearing timeless music
