Nicolas Bearde - I Remember You: The Music of Nat King Cole

It can't have escaped your attention that 2019 marks Nat King Cole's centenary.

To celebrate the "100 up" much of the maestro's back catalogue has been reissued alongside plenty of rarities (particularly an "international" version of his hits), at the same time plenty of artists have offered their own tributes via their own interpretations of the Cole repertoire. Most prominent, of course, was the Gregory Porter collection. Latest to offer a Cole tribute is acclaimed jazz baritone Nicolas Bearde... a lifelong fan of Cole and one of his chief inspirations and influences. Refreshingly, Bearde's King Cole homage is a little different to most of the others available. For starters Nicolas has avoided covering too many of Cole's "big songs". So no 'Mona Lisa' or 'Nature Boy' here; 'L-O-V-E' is probably the most "Cole-associated" song on this menu. Instead you can enjoy things like 'The Rules Of The Road', 'Thou Swell', 'That Sunday, That Summer', 'Funny Not Much' and 'I Remember You' for which the album is titled.