01/22/2025
Never-before-performed Frank Sinatra and Count Basie arrangements will be heard in Collingswood this weekend
An errant Google search led South Philly-raised vocalist Brandon Tomasello to these gems that lay hidden in the Library of Congress
Frank Sinatra at a Capitol Records recording session in Los Angeles, 1954. Billy Byers' arrangements for Sinatra's "Sinatra at the Sands" have never been performed before.1978 Sid Avery
by Shaun Brady, For The Inquirer, Published Jan. 21, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
Sinatra at the Sands is one of those rare perfect albums, a magical performance that created an indelible snapshot of an artist and an era. Frank Sinatra’s first live album was recorded in Las Vegas in 1966 and teamed the iconic crooner with two other giants of American music: Count Basie and his Orchestra, with Quincy Jones serving as conductor and arranger.
Today, many of the renditions on Sinatra at the Sands have become recognized as those songs’ definitive versions. But it could have been different.
Under Jones’ supervision, the late trombonist and arranger Billy Byers was tasked with contributing a handful of arrangements that were performed live during the run of shows preceding the recording of Sinatra’s first live album. But they never made it into the album.
Byers’ arrangements ultimately ended up in the collection of the Library of Congress, where they sat dormant for nearly six decades until South Philly-raised vocalist Brandon Tomasello chanced upon them during an errant Google search in 2019.
City Rhythm Orchestra prepares to record Billy Byers' long-lost scores for Frank Sinatra and Count Basie at Pennsauken's SoundPlex Studios. Courtesy of Brandon Tomasello
Certain he had no chance of getting his hands on these treasures, the 32-year-old singer took a stab by calling a family friend, businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Tom Knox.
“I asked him, ‘Do we have a connection at the Library of Congress?’” Tomasello recalled last week over Zoom from the dining room of his Mickleton, N.J. home. “He laughed and said, ‘I’m on the board of the Library of Congress.’”
Tomasello sought permission to record these long-lost gems from the arranger’s son, trombonist Bryant Byers, who not only gave his blessings but flew from his home in Oregon to Pennsauken’s historic SoundPlex Studios to perform on Tomasello’s newly released second album, The Lost Sinatra-Basie.
He’ll do the same when Tomasello and the City Rhythm Orchestra celebrate the album’s release on Saturday at Collingswood’s Scottish Rite Auditorium.
“My father helped invent an entire style of music,” Byers said. “I want to keep it alive. So when Brandon found these charts, I thought this would be a great opportunity to keep my father’s music in the public ear, for it to breathe and gain some new life.”
Singer Brandon Tomasello and trombonist Bryant Byers at Pennsauken's SoundPlex Studios.Courtesy of Brandon Tomasello
The project brings together two lifelong Sinatra fans.
“My grandmother was an absolute Sinatra nut,” Tomasello said. “The old joke was true: In the living room, there was a picture of the Pope and a picture of Sinatra, not necessarily in that order.”
His grandparents’ passion for the music ultimately led Tomasello to a career in music — he performs regularly in Atlantic City casinos and teaches at his alma mater, Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School — despite his original intention to become a funeral home director.
“You went from funeral director to musical resurrector,” said Byers, who grew up even more immersed in music.
He recalls doing his homework while his prolific father scribbled away on sheet music in hotel rooms or backstage at the Jerry Lewis Telethon.
“I would leave for school in the morning and he’d be writing a Vegas act for singer Keely Smith. I’d come home and ask him how it was going and he’d say, ‘That was two projects ago.’ He used to write music like he was writing letters to his mother.”
Byers’ arrangements include versions of classic Songbook tunes like “All the Way,” “In the Wee Small Hours,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” and “It’s Easy to Remember.” On the album they’re placed alongside familiar arrangements by Jones and Basie’s go-to arranger in the ‘60s, Chico O’Farrill.
Live, the ensemble will also revisit classics from the original album with Byers’ alternates intermingled. “It’s basically the Sands that could have been,” Tomasello explained.
Singer Brandon Tomasello in the control room at Pennsauken's SoundPlex Studios.Courtesy of Brandon Tomasello
He recognizes the pressure he places on himself when he shares billing with two of the most iconic names in American music. While he’s certainly indebted to Sinatra’s style, he is quick to point out that he never intends to do an impression of Ol’ Blue Eyes when he steps up to the microphone.
With The Lost Sinatra-Basie, Tomasello crooned over big band arrangements intended for his idol but was freed from the temptation to imitate because Sinatra never actually recorded them.
“This was the best project for me,” he said. “Anybody can listen to Frank singing ‘Come Fly With Me’ or ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ and steal from him. I got to look at these charts and think, knowing all of the recordings I have ever heard Frank Sinatra do, how would he have approached this particular song?”
It’s unknown why Billy Byers’ arrangements weren’t used by Sinatra, though his son suspects the singer opted for his longtime arranger Nelson Riddle’s charts due to familiarity and name value.
Tomasello is of another opinion.
“When people say, ‘Well, why didn’t he use them?’ I say, ‘Because he was saving them for me!’”
