To say Michael Feinstein is busy is an understatement. The out singer is currently working on his 30th album, creating a score for a Broadway musical, designing a new piano, owns his own nightclub, serves as artistic director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, runs his own record label and still finds time to perform more than 200 shows each year.
Dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Feinstein is considered one of the premier interpreters of American standards. More than simply a performer, he is nationally recognized for his commitment to celebrating America’s popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation.
Feinstein performs for the second time with the San Diego Symphony, July 15 and 16. It’s a hectic time in San Diego – with Pride happening the same weekend – but Feinstein is used to busy schedules.
San Diego LGBT Weekly: When did you realize you wanted to be a singer?
Michael Feinstein: I was raised in Columbus Ohio and my parents were and are very musical. There was always family singing in the house, and their love of music made it possible for me to have early exposure to it. I started playing the piano first and sang in school choir, but didn’t start singing “seriously” until I was in my 20s and had moved to Los Angeles. Working in piano bars requires singing and I had to learn on the job, which was easy ‘cause I was doing it five hours a night day in and day out.
Who was your inspiration(s)?
My earliest inspirations were Fred Astaire and the musical films I saw on TV. It was that Hollywood sound that inspired me to want to be a performer.
When did you decide to focus on the American songbook?
I focused on the Great American Songbook because it moved me deeply, even when I was 5 years old. The music on the radio did not affect me emotionally in the same way these classic songs did. I liked some pop things I heard, but the songs I now perform were always the ones that have meant the most and as a child I literally didn’t know where they came from or when they were written. It was not an intellectual choice but an instinctive one.
What is your favorite song? Who are your favorite performers?
I don’t have one favorite song, but dozens that are equally meaningful to me. The Gershwin song “Isn’t It A Pity” is one that might be my favorite. I recorded it on my first album with Rosemary Clooney. Now that was a thrill! Rosemary is my favorite female singer because of the heart connection I feel with her voice and the expressive nature she conveys in her sound. There are others that are thrilling and perhaps more bravura, like Peggy Lee or Garland, but Rosie is seminal.
The singers I love and listen to are a pretty obscure list: Ethel Waters, Buddy Clark, Cliff Edwards, Gogi Grant, early Sophie Tucker when she was inventing the modern jazz style of phrasing, Bing Crosby in the thirties when he worked with jazz players like Ellington and the Mills Brothers. Fred Astaire is an underrated singer and so important. Of course there are more modern voices I also like, but these are the most influential.
What other styles of music inspire you?
I listen to a lot of romantic classical writers like Korngold, Grieg, Ravel, Mompou, Cyril Scott. Jazz pianists thrill me and I like the stride guys like Tatum, Fats Waller, the transitional guys like Mel Powell, Mary Lou Williams, Al Haig and Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, so many.
What is really important to me is melody and harmonic variety. I don’t like stuff in the jazz realm that gets too out there.
What are you listening to now?
Right now I’m listening to Bernard Herrmann film scores and a lot of Big Band work by Skip Martin from the late ’40s and early ’60s. I’m getting more and more into the ’60s aesthetic and how it was changing pop music; that transition to Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb and the incorporation of more pop sounds into standards.
I hear you are working on a new album. Can you tell us about that venture?
My next CD will be a sort of sequel to my Grammy nominated Sinatra Project disc. It is the expansion or connections from Sinatra to the people he influenced (practically everybody), and the sounds that influenced him. So there will be some songs he sang and others from that era springing from the same creative melting pot. I haven’t yet chosen the title, so stay tuned, as they used to say.
For someone who has never seen your show, what could audiences expect?
For people who might only know my recordings or don’t know me at all, I think the thing that surprises most people is the humor and storytelling that draws in the audience and puts the songs in a fun and entertaining context.
The music is magnificent as well as timeless, and there will be a lot of high-energy swing charts with some great piano work, plus the lush romantic ballads with the incredible San Diego Symphony string section.
I love the idea that there will probably be some people who have never heard some of these great songs and I might be introducing them to a whole special world of music.
You are going to be in San Diego during our Pride weekend. Are you going to have a chance to come out and celebrate with us?
Wow, I didn’t know it was Pride weekend and so I’ll definitely try to get out and about to celebrate. San Diego is such a special place to be and I’m always happy when I can spend time there. This weekend is going to be more fun than I imagined!
Michael Feinstein performs July 15 and July 16, 7:30 p.m. each night at the Embarcadero Marina Park South. Tickets are $17-76. For information, log on to sandiegosymphony.org. Also, check out michaelfeinstein.com.
