A Night With Sinatra - Matthew Ford w. Northern Sinfonia conducted by John Wilson @ The Sage

Northern Sinfonia augmented by: Matt Skelton (dms), Colin Oxley (gtr), Jeremy Brown (bs), Howard McGill, Mark Crooks, Luke Annesley, Ollie Wilby, Jay Craig, (reeds), Matthew Regan (pno/celeste).

As someone who thinks Frank Sinatra was 'The Voice' of my lifetime it is difficult to be objective about tonight's performance which played to a rafters packed Sage Hall One.

Matthew Ford, to my delight, didn't try to be yet another Sinatra clone but sung the tried and tested classics in a manner just far enough removed from the original to avoid comparison.

Most of the material was from 'The Capital Years' with the luscious Nelson Riddle arrangements serving as the cushion for an evening of sheer delight.

In truth, the jazz content was non-existant but it didn't matter - it wasn't a jazz audience - these were people who loved Sinatra, and quality popular music. Add the Northern Sinfonia, conductor John Wilson riding high on his Proms popularity, a fine singer and the greatest songs ever written - if this combination had failed then music as we know it would truly have died!

I'm not going to list the wonderful moments instead I'll refer you to the program posted earlier this week. However, London By Night - the Robert Farnon arrangement - really made me want to be strolling through 'Circus and Square' with someone special whilst I've Got You Under My Skin added to that feeling.

One minor quibble - John Wilson, who conducted magnificently and shared spoken intros with Matthew Ford made one tiny faux pas.

He introduced the Jimmy McHugh song Where Are You? and placed the emphasis on 'Are' rather than 'Where'!

Nitpicking I know but this was such a perfect night I wanted everything to be right - and it was 99.999%

For an encore the, I suppose, inevitable, New York, New York.

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Lance.