Frank Sinatra • At The Hollywood Bowl 1943-1948

In several ways, the 1943-52 period is the most fascinating of Frank Sinatra’s career. Before 1943 he had gained fame as a band singer, at first briefly with Harry James and then for several years with Tommy Dorsey. In 1953 with his acclaimed acting in From Here To Eternity and his new contract with the Capitol label, he was quickly on his way to the top. But the decade in between contained its shares of high and low points.

In 1943 Sinatra was a teen idol (despite being 27) who was adored by bobby soxers, and the closest competitor to Bing Crosby among singers. He stayed at that level for five years and then declined in popularity due to the Columbia label saddling him with inferior novelties to record, tumultuous and well-publicized difficulties in his private life, and appearances in a few forgettable movies. By 1952, many were predicting that he was largely finished as a major star; obviously his detractors’ crystal balls were not working properly.

At The Hollywood Bowl 1943-1948 features Frank Sinatra accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic during three concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. With the exception of two songs from 1945, all of the music was previously unreleased.

The CD begins with five numbers from Aug. 4, 1945, with Sinatra performing such tunes as “Long Ago and Far Away,” “I Should Care,” and “If I Loved You.” The Aug. 8, 1948, concert is represented by two obscurities (including a lengthy and dramatic “Soliloquy” from the play Carousel) and “Time After Time.” The seven existing performances from the Aug. 14, 1943, concert, which as explained in the extensive liner notes are extremely rare (only three copies were made 82 years ago), has Sinatra singing songs that are still familiar today including “Night And Day,” “You’ll Never Know,” “All Or Nothing at All,” a particularly strong interpretation of “The Song Is You,” and “Ol’ Man River” (which is also heard in another version from the 1945 concert). The females in the audience let Sinatra know during “Embraceable You” and especially “She’s Funny That Way” how much they love him. Rounding out this release are two “bonus cuts,” a pair of songs recorded by the singer earlier on Aug. 14, 1943, for the Hit Parade radio show.

Listeners who expect to hear Frank Sinatra swinging and cracking jokes will be a bit disappointed by this release for he sticks exclusively to slow romantic ballads, sung with sincerity, tenderness, and some surprising outbursts of power. That is what he was best known for in the 1940s, years before he matured into the singer who became world famous during his Capitol period.

At The Hollywood Bowl 1943-1948
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Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.

Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.