At the Maisonette, Mel was backed by the Al Porcino Orchestra. What initially was supposed to be a live Al Porcino Orchestra album with Mel on one track turned out to be a tour de force vocal performance by Mr. Tormé. Backed by a powerhouse orchestra of 15 players, Al Porcino (“one of the greatest lead trumpet players of all times,” Mr. Tormé has said) and Mel tore up the Maisonette Room of the St. Regis Hotel New York on those nights of September 1974. All the arrangements were by Mel, which earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist for the “Gershwin Medley.”


Mel Tormé, the singer's singer, has become an institution in the posh cafés, elegant hotels and prestigious concert halls of the world. He has also become a tradition in the beautiful Maisonette Room of New York's St. Regis Hotel, where he has inaugurated the fall season for four consecutive years. The reviews on his appearances there read like something his press agents might have written themselves:

“Mel Tormé opened at the Maisonette and his fans threw roses at his feet.” - Earl Wilson

“Tormé is better than any movie. He conducts like Bernstein, writes the best songs and the cleverest band charts in the business. Everything he does is in faultless good taste, with supernatural class and good humor.”
- Rex Reed, N.Y. Daily News

“Tormé is one of the few authentically great entertainers. The audience was unable to refrain from shouting their delight. He was marvelous.”
- Georg Frazer, Boston Globe

“He does things only a superior musician can do; he can change keys, sing up and down, make modulations, all the licks, and he always builds up to a dramatic climax and then he puts a dramatic climax on top of that. I'm telling you he's the best singing entertainer I've ever seen.”
- Bing Crosby

Tormé's most recent stand at the Maisonette was, perhaps, his most successful and exciting. Not a little of the credit goes to the Al Porcino Orchestra, which the singer presented to Manhattan's cafégoers for the first time during his engagement.