Description
Vocals – Matt Catingub
with Mavis Rivers (tracks 1,5,7,10,15)*; with Amy Hanaiali’i (track 6)**
This is the ultimate tribute from son (Matt) to and WITH his mother, Mavis Rivers, the first female signed to Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records label…
Award winning jazz performer, saxophonist, vocalist, pianist, arranger, composer, and world renowned orchestra Pops conductor, Matt Catingub wears many hats. At age 17 he performed and presented his original big band compositions at the Monterey Jazz Festival. As a result of his success he then toured Japan playing with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, and Ruth Brown. In his early years Matt, along with his famous mother, travelled and performed throughout the world, highlighted by a performance at the 1983 Royal Variety Performance for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. Right out of high school Catingub joined the big bands of Louie Bellson and Toshiko Akiyoshi, and at age 21 he formed his own Big Band, with his mom as vocalist, and recorded several critically acclaimed albums. In 1995 Matt made his solo singing debut at the Frank Sinatra Celebration at Carnegie Hall, alongside Linda Ronstadt and Rosemary Clooney. He also wrote and performed the music for the Grammy Award winning soundtrack to the George Clooney film, “Goodnight and Good Luck”. Since then Matt has recorded and toured as a solo artist, with his own neo-swing big band, and as a popular Symphonic Pops Conductor throughout the world.
Nominated as Best New Artist at the very first Grammy Awards, Mavis Rivers career was Landmark. After the nomination, and after recording three acclaimed LPs for the Capitol Records label, her label mate Frank Sinatra decided to create Reprise Records. The very first female vocalist he signed, whom Sinatra nicknamed his “Swinging Lady”, was Samoan-born Mavis Rivers. As a result, Mavis entered the studio in the late 1960s to record what would be one of the first three initial releases on Sinatra’s Reprise Records. Amazingly, Mavis at the time was very pregnant (with MATT); you’ll hear those vocals on this recording!
An impressive big band and string orchestra lay the foundation for this powerful tribute to Mavis Rivers by and from her son, Matt Catingub – complete with Matt singing along side his mother (Rivers) on five tunes though the magic of the studio. (Her vocals extracted from her early ‘albums’…) The creation of this project has been a life-long ambition of Matt’s. It honors the music of both his incredible jazz vocal- ist “mommy”, and one of the people he admired most musically and in life, the one and only Mr. Frank Sinatra. Each song was carefully selected for its relevance to each of these artists, as well as their place along the journey.
——-
Alto Saxes – Alex Budman, Tammy Danielson
Tenor Sax – Larry Cook
Baritone Sax – Pat Beliveau
Trumpets – Dave Scott, Joel Spanky Gray, Jens Lindemann
Trombones – Alex Isles, Brien Matson
Bass – Kevin Axt
Drums – Steve Moretti
Strings performed by members of the Robert McDuffee Center For Strings at Mercer University, Amy Schwartz-Moretti, Director