Entertainer Michael Feinstein has amassed a career as an interpreter of the American Songbook—timeless standards originally sung by legends such as
Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Irving Berlin.
The five-time Grammy-nominated Feinstein is the host of the PBS documentary series, Michael Feinstein's American Songbook, which recently wrapped season two. Feinstein and producer/director Amber Edwards talked to Windy City Times about America's rich musical heritage and gave us a sneak peek into the DVD extras from Season two.
Windy City Times: Tell me about working on season two of Michael Feinstein's American Songbook.
Michael Michael Feinstein:I'm delighted that we created a second season of the show because the subject is infinite. I'm very grateful to Amber for finding a way to dramatize my peculiar existence in a fashion that seems to appeal to many people and brings attention to this American musical heritage.
Amber Edwards: And also with the DVD and Blu-ray we're able to include a lot of stuff you didn't see in the series. For example, in the DVD extras for this season we have the entire Bobby Short set that he did on Hugh Hefner's "Playboy's Penthouse" TV show. So instead of most of one song you have five songs. And we have five extra Liberace songs and all of Al Bowlly's film appearances, plus 12 or 13 Michael Feinstein additional performances, so it's a lot of bang for your buck.
WCT: How did you come to collaborate with PBS on the show?
Michael Feinstein:It's because of Amber. She conceived the idea and approached PBS about it—and how could I not say yes? [ All laugh. ]
AE: Very easily. Perhaps if you had known what you were getting into you wouldn't have said yes!
Michael Feinstein:It's true that it is a great deal of work to create the show because it is sort of a highbrow reality show on one level, and because of that it is invasive and that was the biggest consideration about how it would effect my life and how much I wanted to reveal. I'm still not comfortable with that aspect of it but I don't think about it.
WCT: Did you film any part of the series in Chicago?
AE: Actually that's one place that we have not been and it's not because we don't want to; it's because the whole structure of this is built around Michael's touring schedule and we go where he goes. I would say 80 percent of all of the archival footage that we used in the series and especially in the DVD extras comes from a Chicago collector, J. Fred MacDonald, who had this amazing 9,000-square-foot warehouse full of films. [ He ] has been incredibly generous with us and just this last year consigned his collection to the Library of Congress. He had all of the Liberace television programs and just a mind-bending amount of stuff that we've been enjoying rifling through.
WCT: Michael, you were born in Columbus, Ohio, and you learned to play piano by ear at the age of 5. What type of music were you listening to at that time?
Michael Feinstein:I was listening to the music that my parents were listening to which was music on television and the radio. That was the day of many variety shows so I heard a lot of the standards because of shows like Sing Along With Mitch and The Lawrence Welk Show. I heard pop music on the radio and pop music consisted of standards alongside rock and roll and all pop things that were happening.
WCT: At that time, did your family know that you were a musical genius in the making?
Michael Feinstein:Well they still don't know that. [ Laughs ] They knew that I had an unusual ability to sit down and play without ever having had lessons and that was significant to them. But how far it was going to go or what it meant at that time remained to be revealed. I didn't know that I was going to have a career in music; I just knew that I loved it. It wasn't like Mozart was born into the family!
WCT: Have you heard from a younger generation of music fans since the series aired?
Michael Feinstein:It has been wonderful that it is reaching all ages, including young people.
WCT: Did you ever get to see Liberace perform live?
Michael Feinstein:Yes I did, and I knew him. I saw his last show at Radio City Music Hall but no one knew that it was going to be his last show. My companion at the show was Shana Alexander, the brilliant author of a number of books. She kept commenting that a lot of Liberace's humor was scatological and how odd it was that he was inciting all these ladies to a sexual fever pitch.
WCT: Why is this DVD a must-have ?
Michael Feinstein:The DVDs contain extraordinary archival footage of people like Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra footage that is not available in any other form. To be able to have access to these images in high-definition Blu-ray is unique. The shows themselves I'm proud of because they put the heritage of this music in a context that I think is entertaining, educational and unique.
WCT: Is there going to be a season three?
AE: Yes; for season three we are in the throws of planning some additional shoots. We've filmed Michael with Stephen Sondheim and with Angela Lansbury, and we just filmed a session with him taping a radio program that he's now doing for [ National Public Radio ] , with Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk, so we're getting a little classical crossover in there. We're very much looking forward to season three and some more wacky adventures.
To purchase seasons one and two of Michael Feinstein's American Songbook on DVD and Blu-ray, visit www.shoppbs.org To find out more about Michael Feinstein, visit www.michaelfeinstein.com .
