Michael Buble - Meets Madison Square Garden (2009)

Michael Bublé Meets Madison Square Garden finds Canadian crooner Bublé making a highly anticipated appearance at the storied New York City concert venue. Often seen as a symbolic moment for a performer having achieved a high level of populist success, Madison Square Garden performances have led to a few well-known live albums, including one from Bublé's own most notable influence, Frank Sinatra. Interestingly, while Sinatra's 1974 album The Main Event came toward the latter half of his career, Bublé's appeared right as some critics and even his contemporaries like smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti were proclaiming his ascension to Sinatra's throne as the best traditional pop vocalist of his generation. Setting such grandiose summations aside, Bublé is at the very least an incredibly talented vocalist who grew from a nice kid singer in the early part of the decade to a truly swinging interpreter of the Great American Songbook canon by the end of the decade. Furthermore, Bublé found the right modern pop/soul songs -- often co-written by himself ("Lost," "Home") -- which has worked to fully contemporize his likable and swaggering stage persona, all of which is readily apparent on Meets Madison Square Garden. Backed here by his de rigueur big band, Bublé has a joyful and abundantly devilish rapport with the audience and is clearly as in love with them as they are with him. Not surprisingly, there was some buzz surrounding Bublé's Madison Square Garden concert, which marked not only his first appearance at the Garden, but also his return visit to the famous Blue Note jazz club where he made his original N.Y.C. debut. Included with the CD of Michael Bublé Meets Madison Square Garden is a DVD documentary detailing this return visit as well as the behind-the-scenes buildup and performance of his Madison Square Garden concert.