THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGSTER
Singer Michael Feinstein hasn’t missed performing in lockdown, he tells
WHEN YOU think of Michael Feinstein, the ambassador of the Great American Songbook, you think of someone smart, confident in a perfectly cut tuxedo, smooth as a Gershwin melody. So, it was unexpected to meet Feinstein via Zoom, casual in white polo shirt and baseball cap bearing the logo Feinstein’s Legends. He was also initially a little uneasy as this was his first ever Zoom interview. Fortunately, he soon relaxed, and the kilowatt smile was ever present as we discussed his phenomenal career and life for a musician during a pandemic.
“I don’t mind being in lockdown because I have many things to occupy my time. So even though the world is upside down, we just focus on the things that make life better. It’s a gift to have the luxury of time to do things I’ve wanted to do for ages. I’ve been going through all the recordings and collections I own. I’ve found some incredible treasures,” says the five times Grammy and two times Emmy nominee.
He has also been producing regular webcasts for New York’s Carnegie Hall as well preparing for a tour of the UK later this year.
“That’s not to decry the many hardships and tragedies that people are experiencing,” he adds, “Oh we’re deeply fortunate. My mother is 93 and lives with us and she’s doing well and so we are among the fortunate and I’m very mindful of that.”
‘Us’ is Michael and his husband, producer, Terrence Flannery and ‘where’ is in his $12 million mansion in Hollywood. Along with Michael’s mother the couple shared their home with two cats, called, of course, George and Ira but sadly both died recently.
He and Terrence were married by US TV’S celebrity legal star, Judy Sheindlin, aka Judge Judy.
“I’ve known Judy for many many years. I met her at a birthday party of a mutual friend, and she was a fan, she loved my music and we became very close friends” Feinstein explains when I ask how he came to be married by TV’s courtroom queen. “She is very kind and always the smartest person in the room and deeply caring and would do anything for a friend in need. Terrence and I had been together I guess 12 years and the laws were changed in California allowing same sex marriage even though it was not nationally legalised. She said, ‘I think you should get married’.
“She pulled all sorts of strings to make it happen. It was important for her not just because we were friends but to make a statement of support for a national bill.”
His mother, Florence née Cohen, had implicit faith in his musical talent as he was growing up in Columbus Ohio. When his piano teacher declared he wouldn’t go far because he wouldn’t read music, Florence pulled him out of the lessons and let him do it his way. “Actually, both my parents encouraged me” says Feinstein now 64, “Because they were a team and my
father, Edward, was very very musical. Although he worked for Sara Lee but not in the cake division! His job was selling meat and consequently I have not eaten red meat since I was 20 years old because there was so much! In fact, now I’m vegan.
“They recognised this musical ability and felt that it would possibly be better for me to explore the piano unfettered by lessons and in a way they were right. And in a way they were wrong too. But here we are, so something worked didn’t it?” He laughs shrugging his shoulders.
“It’s like Vincent Price, who was a dear friend, once said every time he came off stage because he didn’t have formal training, ‘fooled ‘em again!’ I feel the same!”
This is astonishing, considering the career he has had. Moving to Los Angeles when he was just 20, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin and ended up working for him for six years cataloguing Gershwin’s massive music collection.
By his mid-30s, Feinstein was known as the exponent of the Great American Songbook with award winning Broadway and TV shows as well several hit albums. He created the Great American Songbook Foundation in 2007 together with being artistic director of several musical organisations, as well as owning nightclubs.
Thinking of the literally hundreds of songs in the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20th century, how does he decide what to perform each time?
“A lot of it is instinctive. It also depends on the venue. I may come up with a theme or idea. It really is sometimes spontaneous even though there is a programme, I can deviate from that and do something with the piano if the spirit moves me.
“And, I find that as the years progress there are many songs that were quite famous in the time that were overdone. For example, What kind of fool am I? was so ubiquitous that one could get tired of it because everybody sang it. But now when I sing it it’s fresh as a daisy because a lot of people don’t know it.”
So far-reaching is his career and popularity, our conversation is liberally peppered with anecdotes about the rich and famous.
For example, on his early days starting out: “Joan Collins has always been a big supporter of mine. Early in my career she helped me to establish myself. She was being honoured on a network television show and requested my appearance which gave my career a jump start. I used to play lots of private parties in her home in the 80s.”
Or on how he came to tour and record and album with the Israeli Philharmonic; “I’ve met Zubin Mehta (music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) socially a number of times. I believe we met at Sammy and Tita Khan’s house. He would always say ‘You should perform with the Philharmonic.’
“So, we created an opportunity for me to go to Tel Aviv and to perform and to record an album and it was one of the great experiences of my life because the orchestra is one of the finest in the world and I had never been to Israel. So, the whole cultural experience was, to use an antiquated term, mind blowing.”
Whilst working for Gershwin, Feinstein became great friends with the singer Rosemary Clooney who lived next door and whom he considers one of the best interpreters of the Great American Songbook; “Judy Garland and of course Frank Sinatra were both great inspirations, but my favourite female singer was Rosemary. I spent many hours with her and performed with her.”
He has memories of Rosemary’s young nephew, George, coming to stay:“I’m friends with George but not close, he’s a magnificent guy. You wouldn’t have known it when he first arrived in Beverly Hills at Rosemary’s home because he was sometimes very very cocky and a skinny lad who wasn’t showering enough and dirt down his fingernails She thought ‘who the heck does he think he is?’. Well, it turned out that he knew exactly who he was!” On saying that she had great love for him and great great pride.”
Feinstein and his older sister brother were brought up culturally if not traditionally Jewish. “We were members of the Reform synagogue and I went to Hebrew school. By the time I was 13, I rebelled and didn’t want to be barmitzvah. I didn’t see the need and my parents told me I could do it later if I wanted. I haven’t.
“As it happens, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for my faith as time has progressed and I am interested in the commonality of all religions because I find that the common bonds of all religions are beautiful.”
Strangely enough for such a consummate performer, he doesn’t have a burning desire to be on stage; “There are some people that are so deeply connected to their life is a performer that they can’t live without the adulation of an audience.
“Yes, I love the performing experience when I am on stage; there is nothing better in the world. When I’m off stage though, I don’t miss it. I suppose I have a burning desire for music in my life but not performing.”
I ask him can he encapsulate what makes the music of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin etc so timeless?
“I’ve used this analogy before but it’s the best one I can come up with. The finest art is ageless. Just as Michelangelo still speaks to as do Shakespeare or Beethoven. Or no one ever looks at the pyramids and says, ‘those are too old’.
“For whatever reason the songs that were being crafted in that era still speak to us. They transcend time and they have a way of opening the heart and the mind that is unique and still pertinent today. For whatever reason the American songwriters touched hearts around the world.”
Michael Feinstein will be performing in Gateshead, Manchester, Bristol and London from October 22 to 25. For details: www.michaelfeinstein.com/