Feinstein: Someone to watch over the classics

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.

Who: Michael Feinstein.

When: 8 p.m. today.

Where: Artemus Ham Concert Hall.

Tickets: $35, $55.

Information: Call 895-2787.

They are delightful, delicious, delimit and deluxe -- to paraphrase composer Cole Porter -- and timeless, according to Grammy-nominated crooner Michael Feinstein, who gives the classic musical numbers from the '30s and '40s their due on center stage.

Feinstein performs at 8 tonight to kick off the UNLV Performing Arts Center series, the "Best of New York Stage," at the Artemus Ham Concert Hall. The vocal artist has performed in the television hits "Melrose Place," "Cybil," and "thirtysomething" and has just completed the score for the film "Get Bruce."

The music, although defined by a time in American history, he says, should not be buried beneath today's pop. Like the great classical composers Bach, Wagner and Mozart, these composers' words and music will more than likely live on as a testament to the craft of composing.

"The wit of Dorothy Fields, the warmth of Oscar Hammerstein, these lyrics are just as great, in some instances, as Shakespeare (is), they are our modern Shakespeare," Feinstein says. "These words transcend the time that they were written because they are beautifully crafted."

And it would be a great shame to let them lie dormant. "These songs are useless unless someone performs (them)."

Feinstein sings the tunes of composers from the '30s '40s and '50s. such as Ira and George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin who had hits with, respectively, "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Begin the Beguine" and "Steppin' Out With My Baby."

"I like to sing songs that are largely culled from a catalog of great American popular standards," he says. "(The) lyrics are pertinent and poetic, melodies are insistent and well crafted."

As a child, Feinstein got a kick out of music as his mother, a tap dancer, and his father, a singer, filled their home with song -- always something nice to come home to. His father's clear and passionate voice inspired the budding singer. After years of playing piano bars, as did his composer/idols, the Columbus, Ohio, native packed up his troubles and headed to Los Angeles in the late '70s.

"It didn't make sense intellectually for me to go there -- one would think I'd go to New York," he says. "(But) when I moved to L.A., I had a strong premonition that it was the place that I should be."

And in July of '77, Feinstein found the lucky break he needed.

Rummaging through a record store that summer, Feinstein stumbled across the recordings of Oscar Levant, who wrote songs for Hollywood movies in the '20s through the '40s and composed and performed with the Gershwins, among other notables of the time. Through a series of calls, Levant's widow, June, and Feinstein connected. She saw something in the young music man, who seemed to know more about that genre of music than the men who composed it.

She introduced him to the aging Ira Gerswhin, who needed a personal secretary to catalog the music -- the music that had inspired Feinstein throughout his life. Gershwin got a kick out of the then-20-year-old and took him on, simply to sort and sift through a lifetime of sheet music and recordings.

"So less than a year (after) I moved to Los Angeles, I was working for one of my idols," he says.

Nice work if you can get it. And Feinstein got it. Eventually, so did Gershwin.

"The turning point of my relationship with Ira, which happened early on, was when he realized that I had an extraordinary knowledge of his work," Feinstein says.

One day, while sifting through music scores, Feinstein whistled an introduction to an obscure song Gershwin had written more than 40 years earlier.

"He turned to me and said 'That's the verse of 'Beginner's Luck'! I wrote that with George in 1936!' " Feinstein says.

"Beginner's Luck." Now that's ironic, don't ya think?

"That was an exciting moment for me -- when I saw him look at me and he realized who I was and what was important in my life," Feinstein says. "From that point on we had a very close bond."

Although Gershwin was house bound, he would rise for Feinstein every day and wait for the young musician to arrive and pour over one man's past successes, while building the future of another.

"I got to share in the excitement of reliving his career, which thrilled me to no end," Feinstein says.

Feinstein has traversed Las Vegas stages before, but from behind the velvet curtains. He was the musical director at the Sands hotel-casino for a variety show starring Jonathan Winters, Rose Marie and Scatman Crothers, in 1986.

"It was great fun. Winters would go on and on (ad-libbing). It was brilliant," he says. "But every show went into overtime, (and) the producer lost money."

Crothers, a character actor probably best known as Louie the garbage man on "Chico and the Man," among other television series, movies and miniseries such as "Roots," was also a stage performer who didn't follow the rules -- or any musical direction, Feinstein says.

"He did his whole act without any arrangements. I've never gotten over that, it was hysterical. Nobody knew the difference and I thought, 'What am I spending all this money on arrangement for?' "

That background just added to Feinstein's own personal stage style.

"I think for people who have never seen my shows, there is a lot of humor in them, there's a lot of interplay with the audience. I have great fun performing live, the excitement of sharing the song, sharing the material."

During Feinstein's show, he usually gives the audience their favorites and, just in case, asks for requests.

"There's always some aficionados out there who will see if they can request the most obscure songs," Feinstein says. "But I usually know it."

He doesn't just belt out the tunes of other writers. His new CD, "Michael & George -- Feinstein Sings Gershwin," includes two original compositions.

He recently expanded his repertoire and finished the score for the documentary "Get Bruce," working with actress Ann-Margret and famous crooners.

"I was pinching myself that this was happening," he says. "But there was not one difficult moment."

He says that musical direction and composition is not a commodity to be bandied about, but a feeling within that can create something important.

"You can't teach that, it's purely an instinctive thing," he says. "There are lots of technical things that anyone can learn, but the ability to write music that truly matches what's on screen comes from an instinct."

And you can't take that away from him.