URBANA – Singer and songwriter Michael Feinstein is a five-time Grammy nominee and founder of the Great American Songbook, a collection of influential and popular songs and jazz standards. Feinstein is currently on tour with the Carnegie Hall Big Band to celebrate the late Tony Bennett and is performing at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, November 9. Morning Edition host Kimberly Schofield spoke with Feinstein about the Because of You tour and his extensive career.
FEINSTEIN: My first interest in what is now called the Great American Songbook came at a very early age, because these were songs that were ancient when I was five and six years old, but I heard them around the house and on the radio that my parents listened to, and I started playing them on the piano. So it was the songs that interested me. I didn’t have any particular interest in becoming a performer, then I just loved the music, and I love to share the songs with people.
SCHOFIELD: What age was it when you knew that you were actually going to pursue everything? Then what steps did you take?
FEINSTEIN: It was a progression, because in high school, I was a terrible student, and this guidance counselor who hated me told me that I was not college material. So I started playing in piano bars right out of high school in Columbus, Ohio, I eventually decided to move to California, not for career purposes, but because I had this very strong, insistent inner voice telling me to go there less than a year after I moved there, through a series of coincidences, I met Ira Gershwin, who was the lyricist brother of George Gershwin, who wrote Rhapsody in Blue Concerto in F in Porgy and Bess, died in 1937 but his older brother Ira lived to a ripe old age. And when he was 80 years old, I met him in 1977, when I was 20 years old. And it was after that time that I devoted my life, for six years, while Ira was alive, to archiving the Gershwin archive that he still held at his house. And at the same time, I was playing piano bars in Los Angeles, and after Ira died, I started playing piano bars full time for wont of something else to do. And I didn’t know that I could have a long-term career doing that. I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to be an old man still playing in piano bars where people are drinking and -at that time- smoking cigarettes.’ So it didn’t seem like a wise career move, but I didn’t see any other alternatives, right?
SCHOFIELD: I know you said a series of coincidences…I’m sure that you had to work pretty hard though and your natural talent probably helped you get there, too.
FEINSTEIN: I wouldn’t say that I…well, I guess I worked hard in the sense that I was loving what I was doing, but I never studied music properly and I still have great deficiencies with technical knowledge of music, but it was a passion. So in that sense, I guess I worked hard because truly, I am not disciplined, but I’m lucky enough that I was able to do this.
SCHOFIELD: I think that sometimes there can be pressure…like your guidance counselor who said that you might not be ready for college. You know, if people have a degree, they think that sometimes that means that they can do something better than somebody else, and such is not always the case. Everybody has their own talents and I think that sometimes people feel inept if they can’t do stuff, but you are an incredible talent and have come a really long way. So I appreciate you even sharing that much.
FEINSTEIN: Oh, well, thank you. When I speak to young people…because I founded an organization called The Great American Songbook Foundation, and every year we have an annual high school Songbook Academy, where young people come from all over the United States, to Indiana, where we’re headquartered, and spend a week learning about American popular song…I always tell them that if they’re going to pursue a career in music, at one point you gotta get out of the educational system. And if you’re a performer or a musician, you’ve just gotta get out and do it. So I was doing it from the time I got out of high school. So I was learning what I needed to learn, because you have to be in front of people and in front of an audience to learn fundamental things that you can’t learn in college, I was playing at convalescent homes, just trying to find places to perform. And I discovered that that was a great way to learn, because old folks have no filter, and so if they don’t like something, you know it. So it was a great education.
SCHOFIELD: Oh, I have no doubt. My grandmother was the same way. I am not professionally trained, but if I was playing the piano and she didn’t like it, she sure let me know.
FEINSTEIN: Oh, yeah, you always, you always know where you stand. “That’s terrible. Stop. Oh, my God, that’s awful.”
SCHOFIELD: Take that out of the repertoire.
FEINSTEIN: Right?
SCHOFIELD: For the Great American Songbook…you had already been inspired by a lot of music, but that’s a huge feat, The Great American Songbook. So how did you even come to starting and getting through that and accomplishing all of that?
FEINSTEIN: One song at a time. I started first thing. I played on the piano. I sat down at the age of five, and with both hands, I played “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music. I always was able to just play the piano, which is why I truly believe in reincarnation. But I just started learning one song and another song, and I always had the curiosity to know where these songs came from. I wanted to know who wrote them and when they were written, and I wanted to know the background, and that came to serve me well. So I started collecting sheet music and old 78 RPM records when I was quite young…going to places like Goodwill and Salvation Army and looking for old stuff that people had discarded. So I started very young and amassed a great deal of knowledge about these songs and the songwriters. And one of the things I’ve discovered is that any of the songwriters who have lasted in public memory, such as Duke Ellington or Hoagy Carmichael or Irving Berlin or George Gershwin, they all were extremely prolific and wrote hundreds and sometimes over 1000 songs. So even somebody who may be an expert in, let’s say, Cole Porter, is not going to know every single song they wrote. In other words, it’s an infinite body of work, and the Great American Songbook is ever expanding. I believe that there are songs being written today that if they are collectively known and heard in 30 years by everybody, they will become part of the songbook. It’s not possible to know all the songs, but at this point, I know a lot.
SCHOFIELD: When you were first nominated for a Grammy, what was your reaction?
FEINSTEIN: That they nominated the wrong album? I had done two recordings that year. It was 1992 one was a song book with the composer Jule Styne at the piano, who wrote Gypsy and Funny Girl among others. And I’d also done a children’s album called Pure Imagination that I was very proud of and I was surprised they didn’t nominate the Pure Imagination album, as opposed to the Jule Styne album. And I was happy to get the nomination, but it wasn’t what I thought it should have been for.
SCHOFIELD: Did you have a favorite song as a child and do you have one now that you have put in the Great American Songbook?
FEINSTEIN: If I had to choose one, it would be “Love is Here to Stay” by the Gershwins because that song has been with me my entire life. And having known Ira Gershwin, who wrote the lyrics, and the back story about how he wrote it after his brother died suddenly at the age of 38, gave it a poignancy that still I find very affecting. And I’ve played that song at so many weddings and special events, and it has so much meaning for so many people, but it’s a song that I’ve never gotten tired of interpreting, and part of that is because I’m always finding something fresh in it. It always feels like I’m doing it for the first time, which is no small feat, but it’s something that happens organically, because I love it so much.
SCHOFIELD: Michael, Because of You…the great Tony Bennett, who we lost recently last year…had you ever intended to go on tour in honor of somebody else?
FEINSTEIN: Previously, I had done programs celebrating Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, and have done a lot of one-off concerts celebrating different performers, in addition, of course, to songwriters. So the short answer is, no, I had no particular intention to celebrate Tony, but he was a friend, and after he passed, I saw that there was not anybody putting together any sort of tributes to him. Then I put together the Carnegie Hall Big Band with Clive Gillinson. And I thought it was important to put together an ensemble that would do justice to the songs, especially because Tony was such a consummate musician.
SCHOFIELD: Is there anything that you hope people take away from Because of You when they see you in concert?
FEINSTEIN: I try to put the legacy of Tony Bennett in a context that helps people to learn a little bit about his background and where he came from, and reflect a sense of his style…of course without imitating him, because that’s ridiculous. You don’t copy the Mona Lisa. But also to perform with a live 17 piece band is something that’s very important to me because most people do not listen to music live. And today, when we listen to music, it’s usually in a compressed format where we’re listening in MP3s or other things. For the music, literally, the fidelity and tonal range is compacted, so most people do not hear the full intensity and power of music. And especially when younger folks come to the concerts and they hear this 17-piece band, they are absolutely transported because it’s life-changing to hear music that physically vibrates with the vibrations of your body. It’s a completely different experience, and it’s very special.
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an underwriter of Illinois Public Media.