Deana Martin learned from the best

Of course Deana Martin is a singer. How could she not be, considering who showed her the showbiz ropes?

On the one hand, there was Frank Sinatra. On the other, there was her dad, Dean Martin. The lessons they imparted will surely be on display Saturday as Martin performs with her band at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater as part of the Philly Pops' season-opening Sinatra Weekend.

From Sinatra, whom she still refers to as "Uncle Frank," Martin, 67, learned the technical side of vocalizing.

"He really gave me, sort of, my first singing lesson," she said during a recent phone chat. "He taught me about singing. I asked him, 'How do you make a great tone?' and he said, 'Deana, it's all about the air. I take in a deep breath, and I push from the diaphragm. I can tell if I'm going to be off-pitch even before it comes out.' "

Beyond that, she said, "he really taught me how to interpret a song. He helped me the most. My dad had that gorgeous voice, but [Sinatra showed] it was the interpretation of the song, and how to interpret the lyrics, and how to live with the song and sing it many different ways. He taught me, as you grow older, the meanings and your interpretations will be different."

So why didn't she seek such advice from her father, who obviously knew a thing or two about singing? Because though Sinatra was something of a student (he always contended he got his breathing techniques from watching trombonist Tommy Dorsey), "Dino" was a far more intuitive performer. She recalled once asking Sinatra whether her dad used the same physical strategy as he did. "And he said, 'No. Your dad has no idea what he's doing. He's a natural!' "

But Dean Martin, during his long career in music, film, and television, had plenty of wisdom to pass along to his daughter, especially in the area of show business deportment and ethics.

"He said to treat everybody the way you want to be treated," she said. "That was the way my dad was: 'Always be on time, be early. Know all your lines, do your work, and leave the people happy when you leave.' It was, 'Don't go in and make a mess of things. Know what you're supposed to do, don't make people wait for you. Go in, do the best job you can possibly do, and sing from your heart, and then leave.' "

Deana Martin reinforces the widely disseminated portrait of a man whose public image and personal life were contradictory - a situation caused, she reasons, by his being a Gemini, the astrological sign signifying duality. She confirms that his onstage beverage of choice was not scotch or bourbon, but apple juice, insisting that "he would never drink while he was doing a show."

Despite Dean Martin's careful nurturing of a laid-back, carefree image, his daughter describes a classic Type A personality: "His closet was perfectly neat," she noted. "He had drawers with blue socks, black socks, gray socks. . . . That's how he was."

And though he cultivated the persona of a hell-raising playboy, that, too, was part of the act. "Dad would love to come home after work and have dinner," she said. "If he wasn't in Las Vegas or on the road or making a movie, he would get up and go play golf in the morning. Then he would come home, and we'd have dinner together, and we'd watch movies. He liked that. He didn't need to go out and party."

It could be argued that if it weren't for Sinatra, Dean Martin would have been the most popular and successful Italian American singer/actor of the 20th century. But, according to Deana, her father never harbored any resentment or jealousy toward Ol' Blue Eyes.

"They were so giving and generous, and they all loved each other," she claimed. "To see Dean, Uncle Frank, and Uncle Sammy [Davis Jr.] onstage together was amazing. They would let the others shine. My dad was a very secure man."

Deana Martin's Kimmel Center gig, with the Deana Martin Band, will be a salute to a number of 20th-century exponents of the Great American Songbook. In addition to paying homage to her father and Sinatra, other artists remembered will include Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Darin. Martin is particularly excited about the technologically enabled duet she'll perform with her father on Cole Porter's "True Love."

The concert takes place smack-dab in the middle of the Philly Pop's weekend-long, four-concert celebration of Sinatra's 100th birthday (he would have hit that milestone Dec. 12), one of countless such events being staged internationally this year. Martin announced that a similar series of observances is planned for 2017, the year of her father's centennial.

In addition to doing a number of concerts, she is overseeing the planned 2017 release of two films. One is a theatrical movie based on her 2005 book, Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes. It's being produced by Joe Montegna (who portrayed the late entertainer in the HBO film The Rat Pack) and written and directed by actress Bonnie Hunt. There will also be a documentary, which she compared to HBO's recent Frank Sinatra: All or Nothing at All.

"Two thousand seventeen" she said, "is going to be the year of Dean Martin!"

darrowc@phillynews.com

215-313-3134

@chuckdarrow

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Deana Martin

Live in Concert

8 p.m. Saturday at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater

Tickets: $85-$140.

The Philly

Pops Sinatra:

A Centennial Celebration

8 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Verizon Hall, the Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Streets

Tickets: $41-$150.

Information: 215-893-1999 or phillypops.org.EndText

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Before you attend Deana Martin's concert Saturday

at the Kimmel Center, join Philadelphia Media Network Events for a 6:30 p.m. preshow reception with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and a chance to win a pair of tickets to the Philly Pops Gala Supper at the Prime Rib after the performance. Purchase tickets at Philly.com/fallartsevents. EndText