Author: Ernie Santosuosso Date: 04/03/1980 Page: ?????Five years ago, Frank Sinatra cut his last album, "The Main Event," commemorating his 1974 concert in Madison Square Garden. It was an unequivocal disaster. While he went the distance in "The Main Event," his handlers should have thrown in the towel.
Section: CALENDAR
Now comes "Trilogy" (Reprise), sandwiched in between a series of uneven concert presentations, one or two of them downright sad. At a list price of $20.98, this admittedly risky three-disc undertaking is a purported wrap-up fact with dashes of fancy, of the career of the singer, now 64, whose raspy voice frequently betrayed him in the '70s and left even his objective fans wondering if the famed Sinatra pipes had rusted away.
However, if "The Voice" was overmatched in "The Main Event," his new release shows the Hoboken Kid with a new-found spring in his step and zing in his singing.
Sinatra is near-brilliant in "Trilogy."
The album is so named because of the three eras - "Past," "Present" and "Future" - in which the singer's career is brought into focus. "The Past" contains songs written generally before the rock era while "The Present" includes music bridges the late '50s with today. Despite its more heavy-handed structure with 105-piece orchestra under the direction of the segment's composer Gordon Jenkins and 60-voice chorus and its oratorio form, "The Future" is surprisingly intriguing, if not suitable fare for the audiences at Caesars Palace.
Certainly, "Trilogy" does not pretend to restore Sinatra's vocal impeccability of his peak years in the mid-'50s when he cut his benchmark album, "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" with Nelson Riddle for Capitol. But if this new album is any yardstick, the Sinatra of the '80s can still outsing almost anybody - with one tonsil tied behind him.
Sixteen of the 20 songs contained in "The Past" and "The Present" had never been recorded by the singer and the four repeats are fresh updates.
From "The Past," "The Song Is You," burnished by Billy May's crisp chart with legato reed fills, has Sinatra floating a mid-range vocal. "But Not for Me" remembers Sinatra's former boss, Tommy Dorsey, with the familiar fluty filagrees and honey-toned trombone solo. Sinatra acknowledges still another onetime employer, Harry James, on "I Had the Craziest Dream" with a trumpet intro and solo as The Voice slurs creamily and elasticizes notes into taffy. On "It Had to Be You," voice and trumpet are layered while "Let's Face the Music and Dance" swings out fancifully, frivolously capped with a clarioned coda.
"Street of Dreams" is finger-poppin' with biting brass flashing from the 55-piece orchestra and Sinatra in cool command. "All of You" he struts with sass and adds a Nelson Riddle-ish finish.
From "The Present," if you spin only Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," revamped for Sinatra's ultra-hip, head-nodding manner, and the feisty "New York, New York," which just might oust "My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)" as the singer's favorite locale to serenade, you will have had ample evidence of Sinatra's renascence-on- record. "Just the Way You Are" is loaded with swagger plus conductor Don Costa's alertly responsive ensemble breaks. George Harrison's "Something" is something else already ("You stick around, Jack, it might show . . . ") may not be Beatlesque but here it is a joyous rediscovery.
"The Future" has a libretto peppered with allusions to Sinatra's life and interweaved within the piece is a fancied trip into outer space. Although the work places heavy demand on the singer's control and stamina, not to mention the listener's patience, "The Future" is a considerable improvement over "Watertown," which flopped as a concept album for the singer.
If one song can put Sinatra's comeback via "Trilogy," it's "The Theme From New York, New York." Here is Sinatra, self-confident, snarling and challenging. "The Main Event" may have KO'd him five years ago, but this time he's gotten up from the canvas . . . swinging.*