Local crooner Jimmy Borges knows great love songs — he's been singing them for more than 50 years.

Anyone can slap together a song full of gushy lyrics, but that doesn't make it romantic. A great love song is the marriage of a fantastic voice and sincere words delivered from the heart, Borges said.

For example, take Billie Holiday's "How Deep is the Ocean?," soon to be performed by Keali'i Reichel during the Return to Romance festival.

"Very simple lyrics, but when you sing it from the heart, it kills you," Borges said. "I sing that for my wife and she cries every time. And it makes me cry to watch her cry. When I am singing that, the manifestation of our love becomes almost tangible."

The 71-year-old jazz veteran, along with other Isle favorites Cecilio & Kapono, Amy Hanaia-li'i Gilliom, Raiatea Helm, Na Leo Pilimehana and Keali'i Reichel, will take to the stage tonight for the Matt Catingub Orchestra's "Return to Romance — the CD" concert at the Waikiki Shell.

An elder statesman in the Island music scene, Borges was asked to participate in the festival as a sort of "balance for a lot of the new artists coming in," he said.

"I've been doing it all my life. I would be kind of like one of the older denizens of the genre," Borges said.

Now deep into retirement, Borges occasionally puts down his golf clubs and picks up a microphone for benefit or corporate concerts. The Return to Romance festival was one of those projects he couldn't resist, especially considering his friend and colleague Matt Catingub, conductor of the Honolulu Symphony Pops orchestra, is its organizer.

The two worked together in the past, notably on Borges' four Frank Sinatra tribute concerts with the Honolulu Symphony.

"I don't use this word lightly, but (Catingub) is a genius. The young man is a genius," Borges said. "The reason so many of these major pop stars are coming here is him, and what he does for them. To get a Matt Catingub arrangement to take with you around the country, it's incredible. His arrangements are as good as Nelson Riddle's was for Frank Sinatra or Quincy Jones' for Count Basie."

In the first of a future series of "Return to Romance" albums, Borges recorded "When I Fall in Love," a song he feels especially honored to sing, he said. Catingub's instrumental version of that song was included on the Grammy Award-winning album for the film "Good Night, and Good Luck."

"That was a very nice gesture on his part, to allow me to sing a song that is really, really special to him," Borges said.

During tonight's concert, watch for Borges to switch up the pace with big-band jazz renditions of "Please Be Kind" and "Love for Sale."

"Everyone is going to be doing ballads, and I have a couple of tunes that are Matt Catingub arrangements which are really hot," Borges said.

As much as he loves to perform, Borges says, he doesn't miss his nightly lounge gigs in Waikiki.

"I love, love, love to sing, and when I'm singing I never want to stop. But I don't want to go to work," he said, laughing.

But that doesn't mean Borges isn't busy on other projects. He's working with PBS Hawaii on a show about jazz in the Islands. He's also helping an independent film company that's putting together a documentary about him for an upcoming Hawaii International Film Festival debut. "All projects in the works," he said.

There may even be another Frank Sinatra tribute concert down the road, he said.

And retirement allows Borges to spend more time with his other love. On a recent trip to New York, Borges and his wife squeezed in eight Broadway shows in 11 days, starting with the production of "42nd Street."

"My wife had never seen a Broadway show before. When that show opened and 50 girls came tap-dancing down, I looked over and she had tears in her eyes. Everything she saw on the old movie was coming to life. That made my whole trip."

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.