Michael Feinstein is the gate keeper to the Great American Songbook and he guards and protects the musical treasure chest assiduously. Furthermore, Feinstein himself has become a performing jewel in his own right and his evolution has been fascinating. When I first saw him more than a decade ago, he was a piano man in the mould of the late legend Bobby Short. However, as his popularity and audiences have grown, he has become a confident front man singing with big bands and extending his repertoire.

^{Michael Feinstein. Photograph © James Penlides}

The Sinatra project has been a catalyst in the emergence of the new Feinstein. Sinatra was a showman, savvy enough to surround himself with the finest musicians and arrangers (Nelson Riddle, in particular) and to cherry pick the best songs and shape them to fit his personality. He was bigger than life and he could claim songs and make them his own in a way that no other artist has done before or since. In his odyssey through Ol’ Blue Eyes’ material, Feinstein has found new horizons for himself. The Sinatra project has morphed into the Feinstein project and...