January 28, 2006

Sinatra down under


This is a news reel from January 1955, showing The Voice arriving at an airport in Australia where he was scheduled to perform. Accompanying him is his teenage daughter, Nancy (with the laughing face).

Here is the March 31, 1959 perfomance of "I Get a Kick Out of You" (if you listen carefully at the beginning, you can hear glasses clinking) from Frank Sinatra and Red Norvo Quintet, Live in Australia, 1959. His performances on March 31 and April 1 are supposed to have been excellent. He was of good voice and high spirits, and the Red Norvo Quintet was smokin'. This is the closest to jazz (including his work with Count Basie) Sinatra ever got. Sinatra's ebullience was most likely due to the addition of former wife/on again, off again flame, Ava Gardner, to the tour group. Gardner was in Australia filming On the Beach. Good times.

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