Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary

by Thomas Cole
August 14, 2025

Ed Sullivan, at one time was the most renowned name in US television. Most of us hear that name and think of Elvis Presley and his electrifying game-changing performance in 1956. Few of us will ever forget the hip-shaking gyrations that captivated a nation. Nothing like it had ever been seen on national television. Or so the myth goes, as Elvis premiered on the Milton Berle Show a few months earlier. Or we think of and remember his introduction of ...

The Jazz Sides of Nat King Cole, Part 3: Recordings with Jazz Greats

by Larry Slater
March 28, 2025

Nat King Cole spent the '40s with the King Cole Trio, but he also played with many of the prominent jazz musicians of the era in a variety of settings. including Les Paul, Lester Young and Lionel Hampton. In 1956 he waxed the famous “After Midnight" sessions with Stuff Smith, Sweets Edison, Juan Tizol and the alto saxophonist Willie Smith. The hour also features his iconic recording of Billy Strayhorn's 'Lush Life," and an excerpt from his short lived TV ...

The Jazz Sides of the Nat Cole Trio, part 2

by Larry Slater
March 22, 2025

The Jazz Sides of the Nat Cole Trio, Part 1

by Larry Slater
March 21, 2025

Nat King Cole is known and loved today for his classic vocal recordings but when Cole started out in the late 1930s, he was a jazz pianist, and his singing was an afterthought, Eventfully of course he gained worldwide fame with his voice, and as an unsurpassed interpreter of romantic ballads, but during the swing era, he was one of the most influential jazz pianists of the era. Part I features Nat King Cole with his influential trio in recordings ...

Where There's No Will, There's Still a Way

by Patrick Burnette
May 27, 2021

The Bastards had hoped to host author Will Friedwald this episode to discuss his book on Nat King Cole, but like a ramblin' rose his path wandered from ours and we ended up high and lonesome, talking Nat's vocal albums on Capital by ourselves. Nat was one of the great Swing era piano players and led one of the first influential jazz piano trios, but we focus on the second half of his too-short career as mainstream vocalist and vowel-wrangler ...

Nat King Cole: Straighten Up and Fly Right �C The Best of Hittin�� the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)

by Mark Sullivan
July 1, 2020

Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) (Resonance Records, 2019) is a treasury of Nat “King" Cole's earliest recorded work, documenting his mastery of jazz piano and vocals long before he became a popular singing star. But at seven CDs or 10 LPs, it's a lot of music, perhaps too much for a casual or curious fan. This single disc “best of" compilation offers a generous selection of 21 tracks, most of them featuring Cole's famous trio with guitarist Oscar ...

Nat King Cole: Hittin�� the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)

by Mark Sullivan
November 9, 2019

Before pianist/vocalist Nat King Cole had a career as a pop crooner--his many hits included “All for You," “The Christmas Song," “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," “Nature Boy" and “Mona Lisa" (the No. 1 song in 1950)--he led a successful jazz trio which featured both his piano playing and vocals. This voluminous collection aims to document all of his early work. There are many surprises for those who only know the pop hits, ...