Customer Reviews

Piano Style of Nat King Cole

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It's lyrical, light, flawless swinging King Cole piano solo with a Nelson Riddle orchestral backing, playing standards from My Heart Stood Still to April In Paris. What more do you want??

Nelson Riddle provides outstanding accompaniment to the virtuosity of Nat Cole on the piano. This performance reinforces the truth that Nat King Cole rates with Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson as a jazz pianist.

Nat Cole and Nelson Riddle. It doesn't get much better than this.

This is a pensive, introspective Cole breaking new ground, exploring a new kind of dialog with the piano and the orchestra. During the hight of his vocal career few realized the quality of his musicianship and piano playing. This isn't background music: you cannot anticipate the next note, so you wind up listening closely to his playing, 'feeling' his fingers on the keys. This is a musician's album, best appreciated by musicians and astute listeners, but a pleasure at all times.

I really wanted to hear more Nat soloing--before he became the star vocalist. He was an extremely good jazz pianist...and that's why he swung in singing. Maybe those soloist track just do not exist. But, what's here is good.

was first released in 1955 virtually no one bought it just because Nat Cole didn't sing on it. This has got to
be one of the most artistically accomplished albums I've ever had the pleasure to hear. Cole was one hell of a pianist and this album certainly displays him in great form. His playing is flawless and you can tell that he's having a great time doing it. While I only knew of him as a singer, and one of my all time favorites, it didn't take long for me to find out what an accomplished artist he was.
What can I say about Nelson Riddle's arrangements that better writers than I have already said? I knew this would be a good album before I bought it and was not surprised by the sheer quality of all this great music. My favorite
track is "I Get a Kick Out of You" which highlights Riddle's contribution and his chart here for Cole swings a lot harder---and better---than the one he wrote for Sinatra a year earlier. But there is basically not a bad track here.
A suggestion: one should listen to this album and another great Riddle collaboration with a pianist: the album "Oscar Peterson and Nelson Riddle" makes a great companion piece to this one. Peterson, one of the greatest jazz pianists, even remarked how great a pianist Nat Cole was. Amazon has both of these albums and they're both great. But this one really hits it out of the park! Can't miss with this one.

"The Piano Stylings of Nat King Cole" is an album that should be in your collection, especially if you are fan. This is not his usual jumpy Jazz melodic style that are show cased in the Cole Trio. This body of work shows his more lyrical playing. Nat King Cole is a underrated pianist, and this album testifies how talented this man was. He is a wonderful player, because he tickles the ivory the same way he sings. His fingers are as suave as his demeanor, and each note he plays is perfectly calculated in the cool pocket. The album is a study by it self for musicians that only care about complexity and speed, but end up failing to communicate with the audience with their instruments. Nat King Cole successfully translates each piece on this album to the listener. Music lovers of all level will enjoy this album. Not to mention that it's orchestrated by the great Nelson Riddle. It truly is a jem.

I like Nat's piano playing, but in this music, you can hardly hear it, there is way too much background music Dennis L. Siluk