Customer Reviews
Frank and the "Count" - By: P. M. D. Schueler, 21 Mar 2007 
This album is one of the best if not the best live albums I own. The show has superb reviews already & that goes without saying. I give it five stars not only for the performance but also the recording. If you turn it up loud & shut your eyes you can imagine the "Sands" with the slight crowd noise & odd "chinking" of the glassesin the audience & really feel & almost see that you are rightin the middle of the auditorium with this fantastic bandin front of you along with the worlds greatest singer - it's that good!
As good as it gets - By: S J Buck, 27 Jan 2007 You can't get better than this, originally a double LP, now released on a single CD. There is is no recording date on the CD but the LP was releasedin September 1966, & Sinatra references his own 50th year during the concert ("I think I better sing before I turn 51"), so it was undoubtably recordedin 1966. This means Sinatra was stillin peak form at the time.
The great Count Basie Orchestra launches the show & then Sinatra enters saying "How did all these people getin my room"! The Basie Orchestra is fabulous providing the sort of backing that Sinatra should have used morein his career. They do a couple of instrumentals the best of which is "All of me" where I imagine most of the room jumped out of its skin when after a typical minimilist Piano statement of the tune the band enters unexpectedly with a fantastic crescendo chord.
Sinatra is amazing, & there are so many great moments on this disc that its hard to pick out favouritesin a short review. However I'll pick two, the swinging version of "Get me to the church on time" & "You make me feel so young". These two tracks alone demonstrate that the man had everything you could wish from a great singer. Beautiful phrasing, immaculate timing & an ability to hold an audience that few others have matched.
There are 21 tracks on the CD, including a couple of monologues from Sinatra which are the two weakest tracks. The arranger & conducter is Quincy Jones, so no loss of quality on that front. This is an absolutely essential purchase for anybody interestedin good music regardless of genre.
Oustanding - By: Mr. Roger G. Newman, 22 Dec 2006 Probably the best Sinatra/Basie album available.
Sinatra was at the top & with the fantastic basie band at their peak.
Every fan should have this album
Not your normal live recording.. - By: , 31 Jan 2006 I dont normally rave about live albums, firstly the sound quality can be variable, & most importantly they never really capture the spirit of a live performance.
Unfortunately I wasn't born when this was recorded, but it captures a wonderful ambiance from the recording, & one area where Sinatra & the Band really scores, is the fact that they are all supreme musicians, & their performance on the night is exemplary.
I have some Sinatra studio recordings, but I would much rather listen to this, if you only ever buy one Sinatra album, or even only ever buy one live recording, let it be this one.
It is that great..
i don't often give 5 stars - By: Mr. N. B. Mulroy, 12 Dec 2005 but i really can't fault this album. the band is phenomenal - some marvellous solo work as well as great accompanying & some moments of comedy interacting with frank. which brings us on to frank. i may sound like a grumpy old man (grumpy i may be, but i'm not old) but i can't think of any singer of today's crop who could get near the consistent level of sinatra's swinging, phrasing, interaction with the audience, & sheer beauty of voice. he seems to do no wrong, & some of the versions are at variance with the recorded ones, & all the better for that. to hear him introduce 'the shadow of your smile' as 'a new song' shows just how modern frank still sounds.
i think this may be frank's best album, & for me it's one of the great live albums around.
