Search - Nelson Riddle :: An Orchestral Portrait of Nat King Cole

A RARE ALBUM; A FITTING TRIBUTE

Giovanni Marra | Lockport, IL | 03/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a Nelson Riddle fan, I was thrilled to see this great Riddle album from Reprise was finally going to be released on CD. Nelson Riddle was arguably the greatest arranger/conductor the world has known, and certainly his work with Nat "King" Cole is still some of the best music of all time. They shared a wonderful ethic of bringing every nuance of a song to the fore, and the songs selected here are indicative of the long, illustrious working relationship these two wonderful gentlemen had. They were also very good friends away from the studio, as well documented by family members from both the Riddle and Cole families in books and interviews. Their admiration for each other is apparent in these recordings, as much as it is in those they both were present on. This album, recorded shortly after Nat's untimely death is indeed as fitting a tribute as daughter Natalie's 'Unforgettable' and 'Stardust' packages of the 90's. As mentioned in the liner notes by Nelson Riddle himself, most of the tunes were songs he had originally orchestrated for Nat. (The glaring omission here has to be 'Unforgettable') And to make the album even more a labor of love, Jimmy Rowles, one of the best pianists of the time, had the undaunted task of playing piano on the sides here. He rises to occassion wonderfully; his work is absolutely stellar. The immediate feeling one gets, whether its on one of Nat's earliest hits (when he was still better known as a pianist himself) STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT, or the ethereal harp and piano combination on TOO YOUNG, is that Nat's rich voice could come in over the arrangement at any time. A nice tip of the hat by Nelson to his fellow Capitol arranger/conductor Billy May in the chart of WALKIN' MY BABY BACK HOME (originally orchestrated by Billy May for Nat) where Riddle uses some 'May-isms' in the arrangement, including sax work comparable to what Billy did in the original. The standout on the album is a song Nelson DIDN'T chart for Nat, RAMBLIN' ROSE. It gets a classy, swinging treatment in the unmistakeable Riddle sound; brass-laden and sensational. An absolutely gorgeous and fitting tribute to one of history's greatest singers of all time, by the greatest arranger and conductor of all time."