Brian Setzer Orchestra
Brian Setzer has been infatuated with '50s fashions ever since he launched the Long Island, New York, rockabilly trio the Stray Cats in the early '80s. Now, however, his '50s fanaticism has taken an unexpected left turn into the big-band pop-jazz of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.The Brian Setzer Orchestrareintroduces the former Stray Cat as the crooner, guitarist and leader of a 17-piece horn band. Nonetheless, there's more to this project than the usual Harry Connick Jr. or Linda Ronstadt nostalgia exercise. For one thing, Setzer brings the guitar out of the big-band background to become a lead instrument, not just to imitate jazz horn lines but to add jump-blues and rockabilly licks to the mix. Although Setzer sings numbers associated with Cole and Bobby Darin--as well as some originals in the Sinatra style--the album is less interesting when it's paying tribute to big-band crooning than when it's mixing that genre with early rock & roll.--Geoffrey Himes