Nat Cole Flac

Ghostlight Deluxe, an imprint of Ghostlight Records, will release For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole – the new album from the John Pizzarelli Trio – in physical, digital and streaming formats on Friday, February 8. Following high-profile collaborations with Sir Paul McCartney and Michael McDonald, Pizzarelli returns to his roots to honor his hero, the legendary jazz/pop vocalist and pianist Nat King Cole, whose centennial is being celebrated around the world this year with various concerts, books and recordings. For Centennial Reasons… completes an epic trio of Pizzarelli albums saluting Cole, starting with Dear Mr. Cole, which helped put Pizzarelli on the map as an influential jazz guitarist and singer in 1994, and continuing with P.S. Mr. Cole, which cemented his legacy five years later.

Nat King Cole could charm most listeners by simply singing a few lines from the phone book. His delivery is so intoxicating that even less-than-stellar material doesn't cause so much as a blink of the eye. This is true with Classics' collection of some of his 1947-1949 cuts, where hardly a classic standard or hit is in sight. What one does get, though, is a generous dose of Nat Cole and the trio's slow-riffin' best . While ranging from the ballad perfection of "How Lonely Can You Get" and "Lost April" to svelte blues sides like "My Mother Told Me," Cole, guitarist Irving Ashby, and bassist Johnny Miller show how they perfected the piano trio template forged by the singer's first group with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince…

One can sympathize with Freddie Cole's plight. The younger brother of Nat King Cole, Freddie has spent most of his life in his brother's shadow, even though Nat died in 1965. The problem is that Freddie is also a pianist/vocalist and sometimes performs similar material. In fact, the title of this CD is a bit absurd, since Cole is heard playing in the same type of group that Nat made famous (a trio with guitarist Ed Zad and bassist Eddie Edwards) and his repertoire includes such songs as "Home Fried Potatoes," "To Whom It May Concern," "The Best Man," and a ten-minute, six-song "Nat Cole Medley." Add to that such originals as "He Was the King" and "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me," and one is not allowed to forget for a moment that Freddie was Nat's brother. Actually, Freddie has an older and raspier voice (which is natural, since he has outlived Nat) and his piano style is more tied to 1950s jazz (such as Red Garland) than to swing. This fairly definitive CD from Freddie Cole does give one a strong sampling of his talents.

Considering how well he improvised at the piano, Nat King Cole's rise to fame was gruelingly gradual. Volume Two in the Classics Nat King Cole chronology contains all of the recordings he made between July 22, 1940 and March 14, 1941. His trio, a sharp little unit containing guitarist Oscar Moore and string bassist Wesley Prince, spent much of the year 1940 holding down a steady gig in the Radio Room, a small club located at 1539 Vine Street in Hollywood. It was there that they polished their act to perfection, ignored by both the public at large and the major record labels. As King Cole's Swingsters, they did manage to cut a small number of records for the Davis & Schwegler transcription service, a sleazy little fly by night outfit that soon went bankrupt, leaving the recordings unreleased and the musicians unpaid…

Dear Mr. Cole is a Nat King Cole tribute album by jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli. "This CD was made exclusively for the Japanese market, the brainstorm of BMG representative Ikuyoshi Hirakawa. He wanted me to record the favorite songs of Nat Cole as voted by the readers of the Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal. They also voted on the trio they wanted to record it and that was myself (John Pizzarelli), Christian McBride (bass) and Benny Green (piano). We recorded it over a two-day period in NYC at Clinton Studios. The CD was received very well in Japan and was subsequently released on the heels of New Standards in the states."