Published Mar 15, 2002

But after hours, he was the frontman of The Ambassadors of Swing, the band he was with for more than 10 years. He would trade in his law suits for a sharkskin jacket and often a thin tie and Sinatra-style hat. He performed mostly at music series, weddings and private parties. One of his signature acts was "Swank! Midnight at the Lounge," a 90-minute piece he put together that played at Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis a few years ago.

In a press release for the show, Perelstein proclaimed, "Lounge acts are back!" "The Rat Pack, Tiki Bars and hi-fi systems may be gone, but now cigars and super clubs with three-page martini menus are back in," he said.

"He was an incredible vocalist," said Steve Hegman, the piano man in the Ambassadors of Swing. "He sounded so much like Frank Sinatra -- it was uncanny."

But his gift for entertaining didn't stop with his voice. He was quite a showman, too. Hegman remembers doing a show when the video projector wasn't working and the screen was a sea of blue. Perelstein pointed to the screen and said it represented Frank Sinatra during his blue period. Sometimes when he began a show and no one had braved the dance floor, Perelstein went into the audience, sat next to a woman and sang "My FunnyValentine" to her. Or he leaped into the audience during his rendition of "Mustang Sally" and pointed the microphone into the crowd so people could belt out the refrain, "ride, Sally, ride." And he could cajole a dozen people to kick up their feet in a chorus line during "New York, New York."

He was scheduled to perform his Sinatra piece at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in October.

Survivors include his wife, Gail; son Dan; daughter Jenny, all of Golden Valley, and sister Liz Spicer of Mendota Heights.

-- Kavita Kumar is at kkumar@startribune.com .

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Michael A. Perelstein, who pursued dual passions as general counsel for Twin Cities Public Television and as a crooning lounge singer, has died. He was 50.

Perelstein collapsed minutes after stepping off the stage at a karaoke performance at the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. Friends said he suffered an apparent heart attack but the Hennepin County medical examiner's office had not determined an official cause by Friday and was awaiting additional tests. "He was just an extraordinary person," said Jim Pagliarini, president and CEO of Twin Cities Public Television. "He brought the same kind of passion to his work as he did to his life as a crooner in the evening. Anyone who met him was touched by the fact that he just had a love of life, loved people and loved his work.''

Perelstein joined the television station in 1984. He served as its general counsel and worked in areas such as contractual, intellectual property and employment law.

Outside of professional life, he pursued a very different passion: singing the music of Frank Sinatra and other cocktail classics of the 1950s and '60s. He performed with the group Ambassadors of Swing, Cheers and in solo acts. For example, he headlined a show at Minneapolis' Bryant Lake Bowl called "Swank: Midnight at the Lounge" that featured candlelight, cigars, and songs of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and, of course, Sinatra.

"I can't tell you enough about this guy," said Steve Hegman, who attended St. Paul's Highland Park High School with Perelstein and later played alongside him in Ambassadors of Swing. "He had more energy than anybody I've ever known. I don't think there was a job we played that he didn't know someone in the audience because he was so well-connected.''

Perelstein had a knack for improvisation, witty one-liners and a dead-on impersonation of Sinatra. Even after gigs, he bubbled with so much leftover energy that he often would head to a local bar for jazz jam sessions. One night, Hegman recalled, they went to the bar only to find it occupied by an Irish jam session and the next day Perelstein bought an Irish drum and soon was sitting in on the Irish sessions.

"He was just a controlled maniac, just a beautiful person," said Hegman. "In 12 years, I never saw him get mad. We couldn't believe he was a lawyer, he was such a nice guy.''

Perelstein lived in Golden Valley and is survived by his wife, Gail, son Dan and daughter Jenny.

Services were Friday at Temple Israel in Minneapolis. Shiva will be today and Sunday at 7 p.m. Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel recalled Perelstein as an affectionate, funny and playful man who remained "a kid at heart."

"He didn't think he would live past 50 because his father didn't," she said. "In thinking of that, he really lived life to the fullest every day. He told the people he was close to that he loved them every day."