Sinatra: The Man, The Music & The Rat Pack

Possibly one of the best shows you can see!!!

This show will leave you spellbound! If you like music, tales and pizazz this is it. An amazing show of Sinatra's music - beautifully done - interspersed with tales about the real man behind the legend.

For the last 13 years Oakland-based vocalist Jefferson Bergey has been zig-zagging through multiple genres of music and comedy. He’s been channeling the voice of Gregg Allman in Freestone Peaches: A Tribute to the Allman Brothers Band for a decade. As a solo act and live-looper, he’s negotiated thousands of covers in an anything-goes show at Belle Cora in North Beach since the pandemic. He’s a featured vocalist with Jazz Mafia’s Grateful Brass and will soon be taking on the David Byrne role in a Talking Heads tribute in the fall. As a vocalist and bandleader he’s lead hundreds of bands on private and corporate events all over the Bay Area as well as corporate events in Barcelona, Hawaii, Cancun, Dallas, and Arizona. Now he’s taking on his most challenging musical costume yet, covering arguably the greatest singer of the 20th Century, Frank Sinatra. Sinatra may have been the greatest singer, but he was far from a perfect man. Bergey is pulling no punches as he tells sordid stories of the singer’s life against the musical backdrop of some of the best-known songs of the Great American Songbook.When asked why Sinatra, Bergey says “There’s something so classic and timeless about the songs and the way that he sang them. But then I started to learn about his life and that sent me down a rabbit hole that I’m still digging deeper into and I’m eager to share the stories and my discoveries with an audience.”

He also warned that this is not a classic, note-for-note tribute. “I’m not doing a Frank Sinatra impression. I won’t be wearing a fedora or tuxedo. If I quote him, it will be in context of a story I’m telling about the man and these will not be well-known stories! I’m singing his songs, but I’m also telling tales that are not the normal, bland fanfare and publicist-approved points that would introduce him on a prime time television show in the 60’s. This show will present both the bright accolades and the dark sins of a nuanced artist while showcasing the songs that make him undeniable for any generation.”

This show will focus on the tales and history of The Rat Pack, an informal group of singers that made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business friends, who met casually at the home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. In the 1960s, the group featured Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. This will be entertaining!

Bergey will be backed by some of the best of the Bay Area including Andrew Dixon on tenor sax and all three of the incredible Hogan Brothers. Expect some very-special musical guests as well.

Host or Publisher Bay Area Jazz & Arts, Inc