Feinstein puts a special stamp on Sinatra songs

The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra set the tone with an opening set of swing classics. Conductor Erich Kunzel erred in saying that Duke Ellington wrote “Take The ’A’ Train’’ (it was actually by Ellington’s musical partner Billy Strayhorn), but the warm lushness of the strings on “Sentimental Journey’’ and the playfulness of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,’’ complete with six bass players spinning their instruments at once and a trumpet that went flying into the air, made up for the lapse.

Feinstein then came out to a brassy “Luck Be A Lady’’ and settled in for a set of songs associated with Sinatra. It was not the first time the two crossed paths. Feinstein described an early gig he once played for the Chairman Of the Board when he was a 20-year-old “schlepper.’’ (“That’s Italian,’’ the singer helpfully explained.) But unlike Connick and Bublé, he doesn’t possess a voice that lends itself to easy mimicry. It was more like a throatier Barry Manilow with Broadway training, and Feinstein made the smart choice of not contorting his singing into Sinatra-style vocalisms.

Alongside familiar numbers like “Begin the Beguine’’ and “The Lady Is a Tramp,’’ he also took a few risks with his choice of material. He tackled “Brazil’’as an instrumental (where his piano was mixed woefully low) and sang “The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye,’’ a regretful ballad that Sinatra never was able to perform before he died.

It was not the two curtain calls that indicated a job well done but the final song, where the audience was encouraged to join in at the end of “New York, New York.’’ So great was the Boston crowd’s love for Sinatra and appreciation of Feinstein that some people actually did.