AUDIENCE GETS KICK OUT OF SINATRA ‘LOVE SONGS’ AND JAZZ STANDARD THAT GOT UNDER MY SKIN IN PLOCK’S SWINGIN’EST TRIBUTE CONCERT LAST NIGHT AT OP
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Like father, like son; like me and my dad.
Hugh heard Frank Sinatra at Maple Leaf Gardens; I heard his son at Casino Rama.
My dad loved to play Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin’ in his Sandsmen gigs.”
Our Muskoka Concert Band played “Crooner’s Serenade” Wednesday night in Port Sydney at the last of our five July concerts.
So last night when I heard Christopher Plock’s oh so smooth “love songs,” I had the Sinatras under my skin, with the 150 “Being Frank” fans who he encouraged to sing along the words to every song they knew.
From that swingin’ opener, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” right in to “Come Fly With Me,” his Opera House concert was the best of him and Sinatra.
With Ross Wooldridge’s cooking back-up band that Nelson Riddle would appreciate, it was déjà vu. Like being at a Vegas casino with the Rat Pack. Or the Muskoka Sands in my and my dad’s case.
Plock and Wooldridge are precision jazz players who were no strangers on stage this night for this gig. They spent the last six years of guitar great Jeff Healey’s life as reed players in his Jazz Wizards band. (See YouTube of them here.)
But Friday night it was all Sinatra in a 90-minute (+ intermission) love fest for the legendary American crooner and swingin’est male singer ever. The man with a sense of musical timing only Germans can appreciate.
This was more of a tribute- than a cover-band concert, as the band and singer leaned into his greatest hits songbook in his 90-minute split sets (+ intermission).
Including a lovely early third song rendition of “Strangers in the Night,” followed by a nod to Michael Bublé and one of the Canadian singer’s signature Sinatra tunes “The Way You Look Tonight.”
And the way Plock and the sizzling horn section sounded.
A favourite of the Toronto singer was the Oscar nominted “(Love Is) The Tender Trap,” from the 1955 movie of the same name with Debbie Reynolds.
“Quiet Nights,” the legendary 1960 bossa nova jazz standard by Antônio Carlos Jobim got hearts beating with its pulsing rhythm, as did equally senuous “The Girl from Ipanema.”
“World on a String,” the swingin’est number of the first 45 minutes, ended a most pleasant start.
The audience was treated to a pair of Broadway numbers as Plock opened his second set with “I Get A Kick Out of You,” (from “Anything Goes”); followed by a “Guys and Dolls” another Broadway showstopper and swing tune for Sinatra in which he starred as the charismatic, long-suffering gambler Nathan Detroit, who is desperately trying to find a location for his illegal floating craps game while avoiding a marriage ultimatum from his long-time fiancée, Adelaide.
Then the classic “Stardust,” the 1927 super hit composed by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics added later by Mitchell Parrish, that has been recorded more than 1,500 times including notably by Nat King Cole. It included some really nice piano playing by the bandleader Wooldridge who got to stretch his deft keyboard touches with gorgeous arpeggio runs.
Other songs he cooly presented that resonated warm memories with the audience were the national anthems of “New York New York,” and “Chicago” — that “Toddlin’ Town ….”
Wooldridge also thankfully dug out his clarinet, on which he is also a virtuoso, for a song from the stage play hit “Chicago.”
It was a concert and showroom performance that local ragtime great Jack Hutton would have loved, as Wooldridge was always part of his annual summer “Friends” concerts. (Sadly it looks as though that long run may be over.)
And sadly Plock didn’t pull out an encore despite shouts for one.
However, he did do it “My Way.”
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