SWING EASY
By Mahnuel Muñoz
On september 4, 1954 the Billboard charts receive the LP “Swing Easy“, Frank Sinatra’s second album on Capitol Records and first entirely arranged by Nelson Riddle.
The album shows us a safe, confident and happy Frank in his new stage as a relaxed swinger, enjoying and sharing his joy of reinventing himself, together with an orchestra of fourteen musicians, a bouquet of eight classic melodies from the American Songbook of the ’20s, ’30s. and ’40, with a freedom and know-how unimaginable in his early years. The sound of the album, inspired by Red Norvo and Duke Ellington, without string instruments, is incredibly fresh and light.
Riddle himself will affirm that this is his favorite work with Frank, which is saying a lot in light of the joint legacy that these men left us, but he has good reasons, since the truth is that this short album, successor to “Songs For Young Lovers ” is an exquisite work from start to finish, in which Frank offers the main lines of his most rhythmic side.
In choosing the repertoire, the pattern of “Songs For Young Lovers” is followed, choosing melodies already incorporated into the canon of the Great American Songbook with a lyrical and musical content of timeless value, to breathe new air into them and present them as pieces that vibrate in tune with the ecstatic feeling of the 1950s. Frank completes his metamorphosis from snowy romantic singer floating among pinkish clouds to sophisticated pop and jazz vocalist who sings about the curves and edges of love with his feet firmly anchored to the city’s asphalt, and with this, he gains the eternity that he has been pursuing since his shocking return to the cinema under the skin of Angelo Maggio. The technical perfection of all those involved becomes invisible to leave the well-deserved space for pleasure and the free flow of emotions that arise spontaneously when listening to this extraordinary album, which takes us from the resigned memory of a lost love (“Just One Of Those Things “) to s vigorous declaration of love (“All Of Me“), passing through the nod to his generation, perhaps somewhat confused by the social and cultural changes that are beginning to abound (“Get Happy“).
In the graphic field, the work also presents and engraves in the stone the most iconic image of Sinatra, with his hat tilted and his tie untied, an urban heartthrob with as many hells on his back as sunrises on his forehead. His frank smile and his open arms with ease and style are the anagram of a reborn man, of a reconstructed artist who gives thanks in the only way he knows how and should, giving the best that his multifaceted talent generates.
In the five years ahead, Frank will surpass the limits of musical and acting excellence on numerous occasions, rightfully earning the throne of show business despite the invasion of rock and roll and the arrival of younger rebel actors. And he does it without raising his tone more than necessary or unbuttoning his jacket.
The LP lived on the charts for 32 weeks and reached third place.
TRACK LIST
1 “Just One of Those Things” (Cole Porter)
2 “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself a Letter)” (Fred E. Ahlert, Joe Young)
3 “Sunday” (Chester Conn, Benny Krueger, Ned Miller, Jule Styne)
4 “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” (Harry Barris, Ted Koehler, Billy Moll)
Side two
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1 “Taking a Chance on Love” (Vernon Duke, Ted Fetter, John Latouche)
2 “Jeepers Creepers” (Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer)
3 “Get Happy” (Ted Koehler, Harold Arlen)
4 “All of Me” (Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons)
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