Natalie Douglas
Tribute: Nat “King” Cole
Birdland, NYC, April 29, 2019
Reviewed by Ron Forman for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Bill Westmoreland
Natalie Cole had a number one-selling CD, paying tribute to her dad Nat Cole. Now, another Natalie, Natalie Douglas, has paid loving tribute to Mr. Cole as part of her Tribute series at Birdland. Cole once remarked that he sang a song like he was telling a story, and Douglas’ phrasing, enunciation, and body language do the same thing for each number.
In this show she used a voice different from her usual sound, lowering her range to better capture the essence of Cole. Her off-the-cuff remarks were always amusing, and her well-chosen anecdotes about Cole were interesting, sometimes funny and, on occasion, touching. Music director Mark Hartman was superb on piano and when he joined Douglas for a vocal duet.
Douglas’ haunting voice was perfect for her opening number, “Nature Boy.” She told the story about how the “hippie” (before there was the word hippie) songwriter Eden Ahbez managed to get the song to Cole, by somehow smuggling it into Cole’s dressing room after one of his performances.
She swung softly on “Sweet Lorraine.
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” Most of the songs in the show were sung in the manner that Cole performed them, but Douglas did “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” her way, singing it almost in a whisper. Her rendition of “Mona Lisa” was slower than Cole’s, but equally beautiful. She spoke about Cole joining with Johnny Mercer to record “Harmony,” and the then she sang the Cole part with Hartman joining her as Mercer, both singing hilariously off key à la Jonathan and Darlene Edwards (Paul Weston and Jo Stafford). Two of Cole’s more obscure recordings were fun to hear: “Meet Me at No Special Place” and the very funny “(I’ll See You in) C-U-B-A.” She performed the seldom-heard answer song to “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” “I Keep Going Back to Joe’s.” The highlight of the evening was her performance of Cole’s posthumous hit, “L-O-V-E” in six languages—English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.
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Naturally, she closed movingly with “Unforgettable.
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” The encore was a swinging up-tempo “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.”
