On Wed, 15 Oct 2003, joanna bujes wrote:
> Justin writes:
>
> "What Frankie are you talking about? There's nothing
> wrong with Axel Stohrdahl or Nelson Riddle."
>
> I'm not sure about Stohrdahl; I'm not sure I have any of those. But I've
> heard a lot of the Riddle arrangements and they're professional, they're
> polished, they're practically symphonic,....and dead as a doornail
> compared to Sinatra's voice, phrasing, and ownership of the song.
> They're just not up to Sinatra's calibre.
>
> Joanna
>
Maybe I'm reading intenton where there is none, but I always thought the "bland band" was used to highlight Frankie's interesting phrasing. If the arrangement was as interesting as Frankie's vocals, it would draw attention away from Frankie, and I can't imagine he would have been too enthusiastic about that.
Miles