How His Music Lives On

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Just try to find a new Sinatra. Scan the billboard album charts, and you'll find no one openly Sinatraesque. Check out The Jazz Singers (the Smithsonian Collection), a new five-CD, 104-song collection of the greatest jazz vocalists of the 20th century; the only singer featured who sounds overtly like Sinatra is Sinatra himself, represented by his 1956 Nelson Riddle-arranged rendition of Night and Day.

"I wish Frank Sinatra influenced more singers today," says Cassandra Wilson, who is widely considered to be the best jazz vocalist of the '90s. "He comes from a time when it was about the phrasing of a piece, the emotional content of a piece. He descended from Billie Holiday and singers who placed more emphasis on the lyrical content of a song. He was very disciplined, and I don't think modern singers are as disciplined anymore."

Of course, there's always Harry Connick Jr., the smart-dressing, piano-playing New Orleans singer who is Sinatra's most obvious disciple. On his exhilaratingly retro 1989 sound track When Harry Met Sally, Connick displayed flashes of Sinatra's golden tones and a dash of his lush romanticism. You could almost imagine the bobby soxers. In the forthcoming movie Hope Floats, Connick even acts a bit like Sinatra, playing a regular Joe with a tough-guy exterior and a sad, needy heart.

But what about the rest of the contemporary music crowd? Can Sinatra's influence be seen? Yes, mostly in the swagger. Luther Vandross, 47, the R.-and-B. singer who teamed with Sinatra on his 1993 album Duets, says he was drawn early on to Sinatra's blunt Hoboken, N.J., charisma. "When I was growing up," says Vandross, "he represented success and respect." Another pop star who has learned from Sinatra is Bono, 38, lead singer of the Irish rock group U2. Presenting Sinatra with a special "Legend" Award at the Grammys in 1994, Bono pinpointed Frank's appeal for a new generation: "Rock-'n'-roll people love Frank Sinatra because Frank Sinatra has got what we want--swagger and attitude." And 19-year-old hip-hop soul singer Usher admires Sinatra's I-did-it-my-way attitude so much that he named his new album after Sinatra's signature song. Usher's My Way has sold more than 3 million copies.

The current, still tiny lounge scene--with its tailored suits, martini sipping and laid-back jazzy music--seeks to capture some of the style exemplified by Sinatra and other performers of the Big Band era. The swing scene, a close cousin, tries to focus less on the style and more on the music itself. One swing group, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, currently has a Top 40 CD. Scotty Morris, 30, bandleader for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, another brisk-selling swing act, says his classmates at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood would play Sinatra records "nonstop." That was 10 years ago. Frank is still his hero. Says Morris: "Musicians have always loved Sinatra and will always love him." Duplicating him, though, is another matter.

--By Christopher John Farley