AVA GARDNER How to measure the iconographic dimension of Ava Gardner in the history of cinema and physical beauty without falling under Stendhal syndrome? The only thing more unfathomable is capturing his influence in the Art of Frank Sinatra. What…
COLE PORTER Can Cole Porter be the greatest songwriter in the Great American Songbook? It is a rhetorical question, big, presumptuous, almost offensive in light of the names that make up the pantheon of American popular song. His arguments: while…
Little Boy Blue: Frank Sinatra Junior The love that Frank Sinatra Junior felt for music was genetic, but while his father approached art in an organic and instinctive way, Junior did so with a more intellectual and technical perspective. Although…
ANTHONY MARTIN SINATRA The Voice’s father By Mahnuel Muñoz Frank said of his father, Antonino Martino “Anthony” Sinatra: “He was a very quiet man. He was a lonely and shy man. You would always hear him wheezing, because of his…
COUNT BASIE By Mahnuel Muñoz On August 21, 1904, William “Count” Basie, one of the great Big Band leaders of the 20th century, was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. Music was part of his DNA. He was attracted to…
CY COLEMAN By Mahnuel Muñoz He was a child prodigy who played piano at such prestigious venues as Steinway Hall, Town Hall and Carnegie Hall before he was ten years old. Cy Coleman was born in New York on June…
MITCH MILLER Mitch Miller was born in Rochester, New York, on July 4, 1911. He took piano lessons but soon switched to the oboe. After graduating in music, he began his career working for the CBS Symphony Orchestra. After recording…
LEO ROBIN By Mahnuel Muñoz Leo Robin was born on April 6, 1900 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and at Carnegie Tech’s theater school. After graduating, he worked as an advertising agent,…
GORDON JENKINS By Mahnuel Muñoz On May 12, 1910, Gordon Jenkins, the Master of Orchestral Exuberance, was born. His arrangements may seem anachronistic to many modern ears, but they were an essential part of the popular musical sound of the…
RICHARD RODGERS By Mahnuel Muñoz Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) was the most successful composer of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of a 60-year career, he wrote the scores for 42 musicals performed on Broadway or in the West End,…
TOMMY DORSEY By Mahnuel Muñoz Tommy Dorsey (Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr.), was born on November 19, 1905 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. His father, a miner by profession, was a part-time musician, first teaching Tommy to play the trumpet, before he decided…
SAMMY DAVIS Jr. By Mahnuel Muñoz On December 8, 1925, a man of such immense talent was born in Harlem, New York, that it is inconceivable that he could accommodate himself in his minuscule stature. Singer, dancer, actor, and imitator,…
