Paul Marinaro

(On May 22, 2008, The Paul Marinaro Trio debuted at Katerina’s Supper Club in Chicago, in a tribute to Frank Sinatra. The following review appears in the July/August edition of Chicago Jazz Magazine)

Is there a true “dumbing down” of American culture going on? Are our cultural tastes becoming more and more simplistic as each year passes? Or have some of us just evolved into middle-aged fogies, resistant to change? In a year in which the lack of funding for the arts - including music in American schools - is a continuing news story, and a week in which the top critically acclaimed movie in Chicago was Iron Man (based faithfully on the comic book I read with full comprehension as a nine-year-old, and rated four stars by the Chicago Sun Times), it was good to have Frank Sinatra, “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” back with us. Sinatra is a veritable poster boy for the “good ol’ days,” and for one night his music filled a need for musical “comfort food,” courtesy of The Paul Marinaro Trio.

The occasion was the tenth anniversary of the passing of Frank Sinatra, and the U.S. Postal Service’s honoring of Sinatra (arguably the greatest male jazz vocalist of all time) by issuing a postage stamp bearing his likeness. The place was Katerina’s Supper Club on Chicago’s North Side, the date was May 22, 2008, and the performance was a Frank Sinatra tribute. The performers were vocalist Paul Marinaro, upright bassist Joe Policastro, and pianist Chris White. Prior to the recent formation of this trio, Paul may have been best known for his musical association with Chicago jazz icon, pianist/vocalist Judy Roberts, who motored west to Phoenix this past fall. Roberts would have been justifiably proud of this performance of Paul and his new trio.

Often a potential audience can sense when the timing, the venue, the performers, and the material are all going to come together and transform what could be just a routine club date into a special event that will long be remembered. According to proprietor Katerina Carson, reservations for this performance were made long in advance, and some people came hours ahead of the scheduled start time, perhaps to try to stake out the closest positions to the stage. When I arrived a half hour early, Katerina’s was already crowded, and there was an electric buzz in the air. It was an almost palpable tension, something more likely to be felt preceding an NBA playoff game than a jazz concert. This audience was clearly hungry, and not just for the fine food: this audience was gasping for the long, tall drink of “cool” it was about to be served.

The start of the performance was delayed by more than half an hour as servers scrambled to fill the food and drink orders, their mobility hampered by the rapidly swelling crowd. Bassist Joe Policastro was coming directly from another performance and had not yet arrived. Finally the music began with Chris White’s masterful piano solo of “Angel Eyes.” Paul Marinaro joined White on stage, and the duo charmed the audience. However, it was with Policastro’s arrival a few minutes later in mid-performance of “East of the Sun” that the trio was complete, and the musical journey really began.

Before each song, Marinaro would point out such details as the year the song was recorded, who had written the arrangements, who the supporting musicians were, and what was going on in Frank’s public and private life. Marinaro was at once vocalist, narrator, storyteller, historian and the most dapper and elegant of tour guides as the trio musically transported us across the length and breadth of Sinatra’s timeline, pausing to explore the bright lights or dark shadows that were found there.

With his rich baritone voice, Marinaro never once tried to imitate Sinatra. Yet when he sang “I’ve Got The World On A String” (a song he let the audience know he feels is “the happiest song ever written”), he conveyed the same controlled but contagious exuberance that Sinatra did. Joe Policastro’s arresting bass solo gave added depth and meaning to the song, and the generally well-behaved audience was pin-drop quiet as they listened to him. On “All Or Nothing At All,” Chris White’s polished piano solo was rewarded with some of the loudest applause of the evening. Marinaro and Policastro combined for a touching voice and bass duet on “I See Your Face Before Me” that was followed by a moment of emotional silence from the audience. With “Ring A Ding Ding”, the trio proved themselves worthy of some of the highest praise I can think of for a Sinatra tribute: the Paul Marinaro Trio really swings.

Sinatra’s recorded body of work exceeds 2100 songs (a fact I learned from Marinaro that night), and a dozen tribute shows could reflect only a small portion of his work, which leaves the door open to make this the first of many.

Paul Marinaro’s debut performance at Katerina’s revealed to many new listeners what his growing fan club already knows: Paul is a mesmerizing singer and performer, and a charming historian of the Great American Songbook. He is a young artist whose dedication to the classics is earning him the respect of jazz audiences everywhere.

(Chicago freelance writer Randy Freedman is a jazz connoisseur, photographer, food critic, humorist, and devoted music fan. He is a regular contributor to Chicago Jazz Magazine.)