Yountville does it ‘My Way’ with Sinatra-style night of music and community
Some 150 Yountville friends, neighbors and veterans gathered at The Estate Yountville on Aug. 13 for another community event hosted by Gary Jabara, this time featuring tribute singer Jeff Wessman and a six-piece ensemble performing a big-band, Sinatra-style show.
Welcoming guests to the “My Way” event, Jabara gave a special greeting to residents of the nearby California Veterans Home.
“Great to see all of our friends from up the hill at the Veterans Home,” Jabara said. “I love you guys. You’re also fun to talk to. I learn a little something every time I meet any of you.”
Jabara added that as the evening began, he had spoken with 102-year-old veteran Mr. Moynihan.
To keep the gathering focused on friends and neighbors rather than politics, current Yountville Town Council members and candidates running for mayor or council in the November election were not invited.
Wessman, an Oakland-based performer who has appeared at private events in Napa and Yountville, brought more than Sinatra standards to the evening. The show also produced a couple of unscripted collaborations with local performers.
One was Yountville resident Chuck Campagnet. Knowing that Campagnet had performed in Rat Pack shows himself, Wessman invited him to join in.
Although Wessman and Campagnet had never met, Wessman said he had known of him for years.
“When I was getting my Sinatra act together way back, I reached out to him back then,” Wessman recalled. “He was a known name to me.”
When Campagnet joined Wessman onstage midway through the show, however, the two performed as though they had worked together before.
“That was the first time we met, the first time we sang together,” Wessman said. “I could tell he was a character. I just went with it.”
Wessman said the familiar structure of Rat Pack music made it easy to improvise.
“Why don’t you do the Dean Martin tunes?” Wessman recalled asking.
From there, the performance took on a life of its own.
“I just fell into it. We were dueling Dean Martins,” Wessman said. “We were just being playful, and he hams it up with the lyrics.”
Another guest performer was Richard Fey, a resident of the California Veterans Home in Yountville and an accomplished operatic and musical theater baritone. Fey served with the Seventh Army Soldiers Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1966 to 1968.
For Wessman, inviting Fey to perform captured the spirit of the evening.
“The opportunity to let one of the veterans sing just enhances it,” Wessman said. “It doesn’t have to be about me or a show. While it is a show, there was this generosity to let people share their gifts.”
Wessman said it was particularly meaningful to see Fey perform before fellow veterans.
“It was a nice way for him to be highlighted within an audience of his peers,” he said.
Performing the music of Sinatra and his contemporaries for an older audience also carries a special resonance for Wessman.
“For people that know the music, appreciate that music, appreciate what I bring. It’s not unfamiliar to them, and they know that this guy knows what he is doing,” he said. “It’s a great vibe.”
Wessman said he felt that connection in Yountville.
“I felt very appreciated in Yountville from the audience, and in the spirit of celebrating veterans and giving back to them, I am on board with that and really happy to be a part of it,” he said.
By the end of the night, Wessman had invited Campagnet back to the stage to sing “That’s Life.”
“He knocked it out of the park,” Wessman said.
The enduring appeal of the music, Wessman believes, crosses generations, although audiences connect with it in different ways.
“Older people grew up with it. It is a touchpoint with them throughout their life,” he said. “Young people connect just because it’s great music, and they appreciate it from that standpoint.”
Wessman said he tries to capture the playful, charismatic of Sinatra and the Rat Pack era while remaining faithful to the sophistication of the music itself.
“I think that people respond to that and to my ability to deliver it,” he said. “There is a level of mastery in these compositions.”
That extends to the arrangements. Wessman said the six-piece ensemble uses big-band scores adapted for the smaller group.
“There is a level of mastery that makes this music so infectious, so fun,” he said. “Fun to dance to and to listen to.” For older listeners in particular, Wessman believes the music can offer something beyond entertainment.
“It is rejuvenating when people reconnect with the music of their youth,” he said. “You see people dancing, singing; it’s actually medicine, I would go so far as to say. It’s very healthy, wholesome entertainment.”
The outdoor setting at The Estate Yountville added another element to the evening. “Nice work if you can get it,” Wessman joked, borrowing the title of the George and Ira Gershwin standard famously recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra and others.
And if the Chairman of the Board himself had been in the audience in Yountville?
“If Frank Sinatra was sitting there,” Wessman said, “I think he would have appreciated it.”
Gary Jabara and The Estate Yountville are part of the parent company that owns the Yountville Sun.
