Sammy Davis Jr - That's All (Dlx)

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Music reviews of That's All (Dlx)

Music Review: Now you know why they called him Mr. Entertainment
Rating: 5 Stars

The first CD is most notable for its humor and monologue. Sammy's monologue, in fact, lasts almost ten full minutes and is quite personal and extremely hilarious. Sammy opines on the nature of Las Vegas, engages in a lot of self-deprecating humor about his race and religion, and informs the audience, some ten or fifteen minutes into the show, that the gig is actually being recorded for release as a live album on Sinatra's Reprise records. Disc One ends with a bonus track not included on the album's initial release in the 1960s, Sammy's theme song for the ill-fated Jerry Van Dyke television show My Mother the Car. On Disc Two, Sammy gets down to the business of singing and swinging as only he could do it, but there is still a lot of humor left to unleash upon the audience. Traditionally, the most famous vehicle for Sammy's immensely dead-on impersonations is Rock-A-Bye Your Baby, and it is actually a real treat of sorts to hear him sing this song all the way through in his own voice, but on this night Sammy chose a song written for Fred Astaire but made famous by Frank Sinatra to showcase his impersonation skills. On One For My Baby (And One More For the Road), Sammy impersonates Astaire and, amazingly, Sinatra himself, as well as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, Carey Grant, W.C. Fields, Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, and Jerry Lewis. No one has ever done Grant, Stewart, and Dino as uncannily as Sam the Man did.

This remarkable live recording is really for all the Sammy fans out there. Those unfamiliar with Sammy's personality and unique style of swinging may not warm up to Sammy's antics and may well misinterpret Sammy's frequent jokes about race and religion, although Sammy does make clear to the audience that he is really just making jokes about himself and is in no way trying to invade the privacy of the audience. It doesn't take much of a discerning ear to clearly understand that the live audience is incredibly entertained, eating up every antic Sammy engages in. I love this CD, but it really doesn't showcase Sammy the immaculate singer as much as it does Sammy the world's greatest entertainer. A perfect example of this fact is the next to last track which features over eight minutes of a jam session with Buddy Rich on drums and Sammy on the vibraphone. With George Rhodes conducting the orchestra, the talented Michael Silva on drums, and a guest spot by the world's greatest drummer Buddy Rich, this live show gives us almost 100 minutes of Mr. Entertainment at his most entertaining best.

Description of That's All (Dlx)

Broadway & Vocalists CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop