3 Strikes
by UncBob on 12/6/17Count Basie Theatre - Red BankI have been attending the Sinatra Birthday Bash at the Basie for 6 or 7 years . The bash used to feature local night club/lounge entertainers who emulated Frank Sinatra. This year for the first time no local entertainers were featured but instead the show featured Deana Martin as MC with guest stars Tony DeSare and Uncle Floyd. Unfortunately this is the third straight year that Ms Martin has been featured and the idea of saluting her Dad’s 100th Birthday I feel was ill advised. This is the Sinatra Birthday Bash and should feature the Sinatra songbook. Having the same entertainers 3 years in a row is ridiculous especially when Ms Martin, although an adequate singer, is not strong enough to host a 3 hour show. Although I presume the sound engineers at the Basie are seasoned pros there seemed to be some difficulty in coordinating the video portions of the program and a great big band cannot be fully appreciated if the bass trombone over balances the rest of the brass section. Hopefully the Basie will go back to the old Sinatra Bash format