Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cole + Shearing = PERFECTION!!!, September 12, 2000
As I listened to this CD, in the back of my mind I kept wishing that it were Nat King Cole playing such excellent jazz piano. He certainly was capable. But his career as a singer took off like a jet, and his turns as a musician became fewer and fewer. However, Cole had a reputation for trying new things and liked collaborating with different artists to come up with something fresh and interesting. This CD is just one of the rewards of Cole's versatility. George Shearing is an excellent jazz pianist that has a style amazingly similar to Nat Cole's. And it's no wonder -- they both have credited ivory tinklers Earl Hines, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson as their influences. Shearing and his Quintet (especially Emil Richards on vibes) bring the songs here to life with their intimate, jazzy and bluesy nuances...a perfect background for Cole's smoky baritone. Nat swings and seduces you on every irresistable track, and even gets on the Latin tip ("The Game Of Love"). I am totally feeling these particular tracks: "September Song," "Beautiful Friendship," "Pick Yourself Up," "Azure-Te," "Fly Me To The Moon", "Serenata", "There's A Lull In My Life" and "I Got It Bad." Cole also revisits a couple of tunes he originally did with the King Cole Trio, "Lost April" and "I'm Lost." But hands down, the best track on this CD has GOT to be "Let There Be Love"!! It is the epitome of COOL. It is no wonder that this song became so popular when Nat did it in 1962, that it became a permanent part of his act. These tracks sound just as fresh and new as if they were recorded yesterday! I highly recommend NAT "KING" COLE SINGS/GEORGE SHEARING PLAYS for anyone who has an appreciation for good music! So whatcha waiting for? Get it NOW! You will not be sorry.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Masters & A Match Made in Heavon, August 28, 2000
If you can only buy one Nat King Cole Album, it should be this one. The arrangements are great,Shearing compliments the Singer superbly, and I've never Heard Nat sound better. Every song is a gem. My favorites are "Let There Be Love", "There's A Lull In My LIfe", and his re-recording of "Lost April", which he did originally on the Original "Unforgettable" album. All in all, this is a real treat for Cole fans. As if all this wasn't enough, the sound engineering on this CD is magnificent. One can catch every Shearing nuiance, and the lush Bravura of Cole's Baritone. Years after his death, his fans are still numerous, and among them Engelbert, who does a tribute to him in his Act. Buy this one, you won't regret it.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the Oyster comes the Pearl, or, in this case, Pearls, October 13, 2004
A poor soul, stuck in this post-9/11 era of ours,
might be forgiven, after listening to this impossibly
beautiful disc, for thinking of a lost time of breezy, assured prosperity,
new jet travel, Jack & Jackie in the White House, and a feeling of
"We've got all the time in the world
to enjoy these vouschsafed pleasures...Come on in and have at it."
And of course, it wasn't so simple: even in his exclusive Hancock Park home,
Nat & his family had to deal with racism, IRS harrassment and other controversies...
And Geroge Shearing's life, while fulfilling, has hardly been easy, being blind...
Still, from the oyster comes the pearl- in this case, 15 pearls (or tracks).
Often the "Shearing Quintet Sound" gets imitated and sounds, well,
superficial and "cocktail-y." But in the hands of its creator, this style
NEVER sounds like a surface-level bluff; it's beauty, borne of real-life struggle...
And after THAT, one can relax, let it unfold and "pleasure" us with its surprises.
One of those surprises: beholding the seemingly predictable voicings of melodic phrases
that you KNOW are coming;
when your "prediction" is fulfilled, you get not only a "logical satisfaction"
but a surprise "pleasure hit." Case in point: the instrumental bridge to "Azure-Te."
You "know" what's coming,
but the FEELING, regardless of how many times you play this track,
is a fresh surprise. It has to do with style, discipline and empathy- applied to
collective phrasing from one musical "clause" to the next.
And speaking of instrumental bridges, just listen to those in "Pick Yourself Up" (track 2)
and "Serenata" (track 9); kaleidoscopically unexpected harmonic colors in a relaxed groove-
propelled by Shearing
and Shelly Manne's drums.
Not to mention Nat's seemingly loose but potent, jazz-inflected delivery of words
and music ("I Got It Bad," "Azure-Te, "A Beautiful Friendship").
Then, see for yourself if track 8, "Fly Me To The Moon," isn't
the ultimate in sheer, sensual seduction. (Indeed, to get anything
within even hailing distance of this track, we've had to wait- for over 40 years ! -
for Michael Bublee's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." Use BOTH with caution...)
And for autumnal tang, "September Song," and "Lost April"
with its lament over April's "numbered days"
("...so when they passed/Love couldn't last..."),
are worthy jazz/pop equivalents of the andante in Mozart's 39th Symphony.
Which makes one realize that, although an album like this seems
to flow out of some kind of eternal "spring" from which several MORE could have come...
yet, this musical partnership never happened again. Still, there's so much
variety of mood, texture and tempo, within this one album, that
it nearly "makes a world of its own," and envelopes you in a feeling of
such well-being that the autumnal regrets ("the sand particles") become pearls.
So, in the end, no regrets: just beautiful collaborative music,
in a class of its own. Life is too short NOT to have music like this on hand.
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~ George Shearing
~ George Shearing
~ George Shearing
~ George Shearing
~ Peggy Lee
by Nat King Cole & George Shearing Quintet 
