Via Route 66, comes My Sweet Embraceable Moonlit in Vermont Lorraine by the King Cole Trio & Others

July 3, 2012 10:58 AM

Nat King Cole Trio - Sweet Lorraine
Nat King Cole Trio - Route 66
Nat King Cole Trio - Embraceable You
Nat King Cole Trio - Moonlight in Vermont
Nat King Cole with Coleman Hawkins & the Oscar Peterson Trio - Sweet Lorraine
posted by y2karl (15 comments total)

Now if you don't have it just bring me the check for the water.
posted by squalor at 11:09 AM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nat was a brilliant pianist, a hero and acknowledged inspiration to many who came after him (Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, etc.). It is too bad his pianistic prowess is overshadowed by his vocal popularity, as that how the public (the older ones anyway) remembers him. Such dreck like "Ramblin' Rose" and such is non-emblematic of what were his vast talents. Thanks for the post.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 11:12 AM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

that playlist there is basically the soundtrack to my early childhood, so long as you add in Paper Moon and A Blossom Fell.
posted by shmegegge at 11:12 AM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

It is too bad his pianistic prowess is overshadowed by his vocal popularity

the story I heard was that he was a pianist in a club, and when the singer didn't show up for a gig, the owner asked nat to sing and his response was "what? I'm a piano player. Nobody wants to hear my awful singing voice."
posted by shmegegge at 11:14 AM on July 3, 2012

What a dude...
posted by Cogentesque at 11:32 AM on July 3, 2012

I'm the world's greatest lover
That you've ever known
I'm better than Clark Gable or that guy Tyrone
You'll never meet a guy like me as long as you live
Cuz when I really give, I really give
So If I Were You Baby, I'd Love Me
posted by thrasher at 11:48 AM on July 3, 2012

I heartily approve of this post.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 12:01 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

What Seeker said. He could play.
posted by Opposite George at 12:07 PM on July 3, 2012

shmegegge: It is too bad his pianistic prowess is overshadowed by his vocal popularity

the story I heard was that he was a pianist in a club, and when the singer didn't show up for a gig, the owner asked nat to sing and his response was "what? I'm a piano player. Nobody wants to hear my awful singing voice."

Never heard that, but it's almost exactly how Nina Simone got her start. She got a gig playing piano, and when she showed up the manager said he expected her to sing as well.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:11 PM on July 3, 2012

Nat King Cole introducing the Hi-Lo's - My Sugar Is So Refined
Nat King Cole introducing Mel Torme - A Foggy Day in London Town
Nat King Cole introducing Eartha Kitt - My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Sammy Davis Jr. imitating Nat King Cole - Somewhere Along the Way

The Nat King Cole Show is a gold mine, and there are a bunch of clips on YouTube. Sadly, it only lasted about a year because, as he quipped after the show ended, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." The show was ultimately done in by a lack of national sponsorship.
posted by Balonious Assault at 12:20 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

11 year old Billy Preston on Nat's show is wonderful as well.
posted by thrasher at 12:48 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Everything I've read has said that Nat was far from a natural singer; in fact, he really stunk it up when he started. Like Ben Hogan in golf, his talent was the result of hard work more than natural talent. But, oh, what a sweet, sweet end-product.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 4:26 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Every time my mother was feeling amorous, Nat King Cole would be played on the stereo and we kids would be sent outside to play.
posted by newdaddy at 7:05 PM on July 3, 2012

Eprovenancysterical ?
posted by y2karl at 10:53 PM on July 3, 2012

that playlist there is basically the soundtrack to my early childhood, so long as you add in Paper Moon and A Blossom Fell.

That playlist is in part of what was on a seventie's era The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio Volumes 1 and 2, a title which has been applied to any number of albums. That particular edition was a mix of vocals and instrumentals and the vocals were all classic jazz standards - Paper Moon, Embraceable You, Too Marvelous, I Love You For Sentimental Reasons and For All We Know plus Route 66, Frim Fram Sauce and Straighten Up and Fly Right. It was one of the soundtracks for my so-called early adult life. Of those standards he sang in common with Sinatra, I vastly preferred Cole's from his trio days.

Cole was a stylist through and through, instrumentalist or vocalist, and he and the musicians that passed through his group both created the concept of piano trio and wrote the book for it, too. It was minimalist in instrumentation and arrangements and maximalist nuance and ornament. The sound was cool and sophisticated, detached and yet full of feeling. Capitol threw that all away when they insisted he become a pop singer.

In a similar if much more minor way, the career of Johnny Mathis began in jazz as well -- one album's worth before he, too, was turned into a pop cash cow. Mathis's first album was on the big band side, with arrangements by the likes of such heavies as Ted Macero and Gil Evans. Take Easy to Love, for example.
posted by y2karl at 2:22 PM on July 4, 2012