Jazz, blues and nostalgia. Today we talk about Vic Damone (1928-2018).
With his elastic vocal chords, he belonged (together with Tony Bennett) to the last representatives of that vocal elite of American singers with Italian roots, such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin. According to Sinatra, Damone had ‘the best pipes in the business’, but the undertone of that compliment was that he dealt with it in a lazy manner. Nonetheless, this son of an electrician and a piano teacher released diverse albums with a nice and swinging drive. He also shone on the cinema screen (and he married with the Italian ‘bomb shell’ Pier Angeli a.o.), until the rise of pop music erased him and many of his contemporaries. After a bankruptcy, a successful continuation of his career followed in the casinos of Las Vegas, the CD era got his records under the attention of new ears. And although he quit working a long time ago, an effective website and a Facebook page of his own ensured a continued interest.
In this Palace of Nostalgia a lot of Vic Damone. And also Brigitte Kaandorp, Wim Sonneveld, banjo virtuoso Harry Reser, whistler champion Geert Chatrou, The Skymasters, Brenda Lee and Johnny Hartman.
