Crooner pays homage to Frank Sinatra
Bruce Duykers, along with the Sandpoint-based Bill Reid Trio, including Larry Hanna on bass, Ryan Dignan and Bill Reid, will perform Sinatra tunes Sunday evening during An Evening With Ol’ Blue Eyes at Ivano’s. (Photo by RALPH BARTHOLDT)
SANDPOINT — His eyes are not blue, he is tall as a basketball player and is of Dutch descent, unlike Frank Sinatra.
The conundrum does not keep Bruce Duykers from flexing his vocal chords with trademark songs of Ol’ Blue Eyes, the moniker that Sinatra fans used to describe their favorite performer.
Duykers uses it too.
He and local band The Bill Reid Trio will perform an evening of classical Sinatra songs Sunday evening at Ivano’s.
It hearkens back to Duykers roots in Chicago where he was raised by a father who insisted he learn to harmonize per barbershop quartet.
Duykers followed his dad’s wishes, performing in quartets until he became interested in jazz in the city where the term was popularized early last century.
“Growing up and going to art schools in Chicago, I heard some of the best jazz musicians,” Duykers said.
He also grew to love lyrics. The combination of jazzy sounds and expressive language drew him to music of the 1930s and 40s, and to Frank Sinatra in particular who he twice watched perform.
“He was absolutely flawless,” he said.
Sunday’s performance starts at 7:30 p.m. Dinner starts at 6, and the combination costs $40.
Bill Reid, who started the trio, is on piano with Larry Hanna, a former commercial pilot and member of the naval academy band in Annapolis, Md. plays bass. Ryan Dignan, a band director at Lake Pend Oreille School District is the percussionist.
Duykers, a professional voice over man for television commercials, began performing Sinatra tunes in Chicago.
“It was fun,” he said.
His voice might resemble the Sinatra air, he said, but that is where the similarity ends.
“I have brown eyes, we don’t look alike, he was 5-7,” he said. “I don’t even make the family tree.”