Jazz Singer example essay topic
430 words
Sinatra, Frank (1915-1998), American singer and motion-picture actor, one of the most famous American singers of his generation. Born Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken, New Jersey, he sang with the big bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey in the 1930's. Influenced by American singers Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday, Sinatra anticipated the decline of big-band instrumental jazz music and helped establish an enthusiastic climate for popular singers. In the 1940's Sinatra embarked on a solo career and became the idol of so-called bobby-somers, teenage girls who swooned over his crooning, soft-voiced singing. He appeared in such film musicals as Anchors Aweigh (1945), Till the Clouds Roll By (1947), and On the Town (1949). In 1953 he won an Academy Award for his non singing performance in From Here to Eternity. His performances in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Detective (1968) were also highly regarded. During the 1950's and 1960's Sinatra teamed with a number of talented jazz arrangers, including Nelson Riddle, Neal Heft i, Quincy Jones, and Billy May, and produced a number of albums, now regarded as classic recordings, including Swing Easy (1955), In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956), Come Fly with Me (1958), Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958), Nice 'N' Easy (1960), and Strangers in the Night (1966). In the 1960's he also recorded with the big bands of American jazz musicians Count Basie and Duke Ellington. After a brief retirement from 1971 to 1973, Sinatra resumed his singing career.
In 1993 he released the album Frank Sinatra Duets, on which many of his standard songs were engineered as duets with other famous singers. Contributors to the album included American singers Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin, Latin American recording star Julio Iglesias, and Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock group U 2. The album sequel Duets II (1994), which won Sinatra his ninth Grammy Award in 1996, includes collaborations with country-and-western star Willie Nelson, jazz singer Lena Horne, and popular singer and songwriter Neil Diamond. Sinatra was also well respected as a jazz singer.
The natural swing feel and jazz-style phrasings of his singing, including his use of dynamics and delayed rhythms, have influenced numerous musicians. Many songs recorded by him, such as "All of Me" (1952), "Come Fly With Me" (1958), "All The Way" (1957), and "I've Got You Under My Skin" (1956), are still widely performed, although they remain firmly associated with the distinctive style in which he performed them..
