Michael Feinstein To Host CD Signing At Lincoln Center B&N 10/18

Michael Feinstein, the five-time Grammy Award nominated, platinum-selling singer and pianist, will celebrate the release his new CD Fly Me To The Moon - featuring guitar legend JOE NEGRI - with a special in-store performance and CD signing at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble on Monday, October 18. The disc, released through DuckHole Records, is currently available on iTunes, Amazon.com and in stores. The CD is being released in conjunction with "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook," the primetime PBS-TV reality/documentary series, which began airing nationally earlier this month. Feinstein and Negri will appear at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center (1972 Broadway at 66th Street) at 5:00 PM on Monday, October 18. For more details please visit www.barnesandnoble.com or call (212) 595-6859.

This intimate new recording of classic standards with a sustained meditative mood follows in the tradition of singers like Johnny Mathis and Sammy Davis, Jr., who recorded popular albums with guitar accompaniment. Michael and Joe first met on one of Michael's performances with the Pittsburg Symphony, where Negri is the regular guitarist. "Joe is so facile that can play just about anything," says Michael. "He is extraordinarily talented and very easy to collaborate with. Music just pours out of him." The CD was produced by Mr. Feinstein and also boasts Jay Leonhart on bass and Joe Cucuzzo on drums.

Fly Me To The Moon features time-honored standards like "It Could Happen To You," which includes the rarely-recorded verse. The Bart Howard title track - long ago changed from its original moniker "In Other Words" - tends to be taken at a fast pace. For this album, Feinstein and Negri restore the delicate waltz time in which it was written.

"Lonely Town" - from the stage musical On The Town - was one of the selections that Negri suggested. Feinstein recalls, "When I met Frank Sinatra, he told me how disappointed he was that the film's producer Arthur Freed wouldn't let him sing the song when he starred in On The Town. He had a great vision of performing it while Gene Kelly danced to it."

The rarity "One Love In My Life" by Harry Warren and Murray Grand, receives its first recording on this album. The melody was written by Warren as background music for a dramatic scene in the movie 42nd Street. Many years later, Feinstein found the sheet music and convinced his friend Murray Grand, the acclaimed songwriter of "Guess Who I Saw Today" and other hits, to pen the lyrics, even though they were never published.

A particular treat is Michael's beautiful vocal rendition of "Meditation," his first recording of a song associated with the Bossa Nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim. The tune, however, is one of the few in which Jobim wrote the original lyric instead of the melody. Michael performs the English lyrics that Norman Gimbel set to Newton Mendonca's music.

"A Mist Is On The Moon" by Oscar Hammerstein II and Ben Oakland ("Java Jive," "I'll Take Romance") was recorded by Tony Martin in 1938; when Michael recently asked Tony if he remembered the song, the 96 year-old sang it back word for word.

Michael Feinstein, the multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer dubbed "The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook," is considered one of the premier interpreters of American standards. His 150-plus shows a year have included performances at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as the White House and Buckingham Palace. Feinstein is nationally recognized for his commitment to celebrating America's popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation. He serves on the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Board.

Feinstein's love of song can be heard in The Sinatra Project, his 2009 Concord Records CD celebrating the music of "Ol' Blue Eyes," and in the PBS series "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook," in which he uncovers treasures from the Great American Songbook.

If that weren't enough, Feinstein will serve as artistic director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, a $170 million, three-theatre venue in Carmel, Indiana, scheduled to open in January 2011. The theater will be home to an annual international Great American Songbook festival, diverse live programming and a museum. Starting in 2010, he also took over as director of Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York's Lincoln Center.

Feinstein has written the score for the new stage musical The Gold Room, and he is working with MGM to turn The Thomas Crown Affair into a Broadway musical. In 2004, he completed a national tour with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb based on their CD Only One Life - The Songs of Jimmy Webb. The disc was named one of "10 Best CDs of the Year" by USA Today.

His Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein's at Loews Regency, has presented the top talents of pop and jazz, including Rosemary Clooney, Steve Tyrell, Barbara Cook, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carroll, Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, Lea Michele, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz and Alan Cumming. Feinstein appears there for a sold-out holiday engagement every year.

The roots of all this work began in Columbus, Ohio, where Feinstein started playing piano by ear as a 5-year-old. After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano lounges for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. The widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant introduced him to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. Feinstein became Gershwin's assistant for six years, which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded. For more information, please visit www.michaelfeinstein.com

JOE NEGRI - perhaps best known worldwide as Handyman Negri on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" - has played at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony with world-recognized talents like Itzhak Perlman, Tony Bennett, Yo-Yo Ma and Marvin Hamlisch. He has also made appearances at Lincoln Center with the Duquesne Jazz Ensemble in a tribute to Pittsburgh jazz musicians, with his trio at the William Penn Jazz Society nights, or at Shadyside's Walnut Grille, and at numerous benefits and special events.

For twenty years he served as Musical Director and on air-performer at WTAE-TV, the Pittsburgh ABC affiliate. He started his broadcast career at KDKA-TV. Currently Mr. Negri teaches jazz guitar as an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and Carnegie Mellon University. He has recorded several albums of instrumental guitar music and composed for several documentary films.

Negri's honors include the Hillman Foundations "Elsie Award" given to those whose life's work demonstrates a love of community, compassion for others and the use of communication to have a positive impact on society and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's "Established Artist of the Year" award. He studied music at Carnegie Mellon University. His most recent CD, Dream Dancing, is available on the Noteworthy Jazz label. For more information, please visit www.joenegri.com.

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