Sessions with Sinatra

October 4, 1999
Granata, producer and director of Sinatra's Columbia recordings, offers a rare glimpse into the work that went into making the Sinatra sound. He covers all the technical details, from Sinatra's early pioneering of the microphone as instrument to transcripts of his many studio directions and casual late-night jokes. Granata summarizes the major recording eras in Sinatra's career, from the Columbia years (1943-1952) to his Duets work in the mid-1990s with singers such as Bono and Chrissie Hynde. With a foreword by adoring sound engineer Ramone and afterword by Nancy Sinatra, this testimony to Sinatra's studio time is weakened only by its unwavering homage. But much can be read between the lines. What is said (Sinatra is quoted, "You can never do anything in life quite on your own.... Making a record is as near as you can get to it") and what can be extrapolated (Sinatra did not, perhaps, appreciate the debt owed to songwriters, musicians, producers and arrangers) can make for good reading. Late in the book, Granata confesses, "Sinatra's personal relationships with the musicians were complex.... Maybe Sinatra feared the old adage, `Familiarity breeds contempt.'" It's evident throughout that Sinatra asserted his ideas and ego masterfully, creating his unique sound and image with an iron will. Those who enjoyed Bill Zehme's book on Sinatra's style, The Way You Wear Your Hat, will welcome this look at the technique, skills and behind-the-scenes action involved in one of the longest, most successful singing careers in U.S. history. 100 photographs.

November 15, 1999
Frank Sinatra lives on in his recordings and, less directly, in the books about him, a flood that has yet to abate. Unlike the Sinatra-as-celebrity titles, this one focuses on the music, examining the singer's career in the recording studio. A painstaking researcher, Granata has overseen the restoration of Sinatra's vintage recordings and recaps key recording sessions in documentary detail, showing that Sinatra supervised everything from song selection to microphone placement. He illuminates Sinatra's work by analyzing his distinctive vocal qualities and depicting his relationships with songwriters and other collaborators; above all, he extols the contributions of Sinatra's arranger of choice, Nelson Riddle. By clearly explaining technical developments from the wax discs used in Sinatra's early sessions to the digital process that allowed him to collaborate with other superstars on his final project, "Duets," Granata also provides a pocket history of modern sound recording. Finally, by showing how much thought and effort Sinatra put into his recording sessions, Granata reveals how seriously--despite his breezy, devil-may-care persona--he took his craft. ((Reviewed November 15, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)