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Hawai?i Public Radio Celebrates Sinatra’s 100th Birthday, December 12

Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. A hundred years later to the day, Hawai?i Public Radio celebrates his birthday in rare fashion:  in the afternoon, a three-hour marathon broadcast of Sinatra: The Man and the Music – 100th Birthday Edition, followed that evening by a concert by local jazz legend Jimmy Borges in HPR's Atherton Studio, performing the audience's requests from the Sinatra songbook.

The long-running, HPR-produced radio program Sinatra: The Man and the Music regularly airs on Sunday afternoons; the Birthday Edition, an additional episode, airs on Saturday, December 12, from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. (Hawai?i Standard Time). The broadcast may be heard over the station's HPR-2 channel, as well as streaming live from www.hawaiipublicradio.org and via the station’s mobile app “Hawaii Public Radio.”
 
For the 100th Birthday program, host and creator of the station's Sinatra program Guy Steele presents newly released recordings by the singer, including a 1966 performance with the Count Basie Orchestra at the Sands Hotel; his 1961 concert in Sydney, Australia; and radio appearances from the 1940s.

The celebration of Sinatra's centenary continues on December 12 at 7:30 p.m. with a live concert in HPR's intimate Atherton Studio. The headliner, Jimmy Borges, has been called "Hawai?i's greatest interpreter of the Sinatra songbook" and, it is believed, the only person granted access to Sinatra's own musical arrangements. He will be backed by longtime collaborators Betty Lou Taylor on piano and Steve Jones on bass.

Audience members will be asked to suggest their favorite Sinatra tunes, from which Mr. Borges will select the evening's set list. Tickets to "The Sinatra 100th Birthday Concert with Jimmy Borges" are available for purchase by HPR supporters only at www.hprtickets.org or by calling (808) 955-8821 during business hours. An extremely limited number of seats remain.
 
About Sinatra: The Man and the Music
Every week, host Guy Steele regales HPR listeners with the life and times of one of the 20th century's greatest entertainers -- Frank Sinatra. The program features the singer’s recorded and live performances, as well as his lesser known radio and television appearances. Unlike any other known radio show dedicated to Sinatra, Steele includes excerpts from interviews with Sinatra himself, as well as commentary from arrangers, musicians, songwriters, and others who worked with him during his long career. The documentary-like format provides behind-the-scenes details of how Sinatra’s albums and songs were created and recorded, and close-ups of this complex talent who has become an icon of American entertainment.
 
Sinatra: The Man and the Music is produced in Honolulu by Hawai?i Public Radio and can be heard regularly on HPR-2, Sundays from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. (HST). The show first went on the air in October 1998, five months after Sinatra’s passing.
 
About Guy Steele
Guy Steele is the host and creator of Sinatra: The Man and the Music. His foray into radio broadcasting began in 1974 at Oregon Institute of Technology.  He was a DJ, play-by-play announcer, and general manager of KTEC, OIT’s campus radio station.
 
After college and a ten-year stint working in radio in northern California, he joined Edward Jones as a financial advisor in 1989, moving to Hawai?i in 1995 to manage the firm’s Kailua office.
 
Guy bought his first Frank Sinatra album in 1974 and, during the past 41 years, has amassed a large collection of Sinatra recordings, radio and television performances, and concerts. His ongoing research on all aspects of Sinatra’s career involves reading, and talking with Sinatra’s musicians, arrangers, and songwriters, as well as Sinatra archivists and authors.

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