John Dalmas gets cranky about my statement:

>>Mel Torme, no slouch himself in Sinatra's artistic territory, called him
>>[Sinatra] "the voice of our time."
>
>The misconception that Sinatra was a "jazz" singer (like Torme) often
>leads to statements like this one, when actually it might be better said
>that Sinatra was no slouch in Torme's artistic territory, although that
>surely is just as misleading.  Sinatra had his own way [not trying to be
>funny, guys] of singing a song that had more to do with personal stylistic
>mannerism than any jazz tradition.

Actually, I know very well that Sinatra wasn't a jazz singer, but a pop
singer influenced by jazz.  If nothing else, Clarke makes this very point
in his book.  However, he also says that those who deny Sinatra's jazz
"tinges" are often either those who don't want jazz to be tainted by pop or
pop to be tainted by jazz, whereas in a musical culture as diverse as the
US, many artists can't help being influenced by music "beyond their own
borders." Ray Charles, for example, was highly influenced by the Grand Ole
Opry, to the dismay of some of his fans.  Doc Watson obviously heard blues
musicians, as did "pure" pop singers like Dinah Shore and Julie London.
I don't know where the hell you put Peggy Lee.

By "artistic territory," however, I meant that they sang mainly the same
songs and the same songwriters.

Torme was both a pop and a true jazz singer, I agree.  At the end of his
career, he became a truly popular jazz singer.

Steve Schwartz