by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally published on cleveland.com
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — The deities that throw the dice to determine what the weather is going to be like were kind to vocalist & pianist Tony DeSare on Sunday. A dark and stormy morning morphed into a beautiful late summer evening that according to a tram usher doubled the crowd, originally expected to number 4,000.
Those fans enjoyed a generous two-set concert mostly of songs associated with super-crooner Frank Sinatra. Although this wasn’t a tribute show, DeSare’s 20 selections reflected the singer/pianist’s deep regard for Sinatra’s taste and musicianship. And while DeSare brought his own fair share of charisma to the stage, he avoided becoming a caricature of Ol’ Blue Eyes.
The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra is taking an intriguing approach to the 100th anniversary of 
This weekend with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra is a case study in the breadth of sounds contained under the umbrella of “pops.”
A golden age in American popular music began about a century ago. Lasting four decades and pervading musical theater, sound recordings, film, radio, and jazz stylings, it left a body of music that has never gone out of circulation and is regularly trumpeted as one of America’s best collective creations. We now call it “The Great American Songbook.”
Modernity — with its fresh inventions, sounds, and sensations — often inspires us to respond in kind. We are in constant dialogue with our environs. We listen. We talk back. We create reflections of our experience. This was certainly the case in last Sunday’s Cleveland Composers Guild concert (October 11), which filled Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University with an array of new resonances.