Album Review: Gregory Porter - Nat "King" Cole & Me

Album review time and this week I have chosen the fifth and most recent album by American jazz singer songwriter Gregory Porter called Nat "King" Cole & Me, which is what it sounds like an album of songs by or inspired by the legend himself Nat "King" Cole. This album furthered Gregory's success making him one of the most commercially successful jazz singers since the 1960's. This album peaked at number 3 in the UK giving him a third top 10 album, in Australia it peaked at number 5 making a third top 40 album. Nat "King" Cole & Me also went top 40 in five other countries making it a third in four of them.

When I first heard Gregory on BBC Radio 2, my mothers favourite radio station, I instantly loved his voice and style being a fan ever since and collecting several of his albums. His voice is so smooth, soulful, emotive and energetic adapting to each song incredible, whether he wrote it or not, making his voice so unique and reminiscent of some of the jazz greats. I take pride in saying that I was raised listening to a large variety of music, which has massively influenced my tastes as you can tell from the variety of music I have reviewed, jazz being one that seemed to be a favourite. Some of my favourite jazz singers I am pretty sure I have been listening to since birth and now my son has too, the three that I love the most and have my own selection of albums by are Nat "King" Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, in my opinion some of the most talented people in the genre, in more recent years Gregory himself and Amy Winehouse definitely make up my top five jazz artists. It will come as no surprise then that when I discovered this album was happening I was beyond excited, one of my favourite jazz artists doing an album of songs by or inspired by my favourite jazz artist who was the inspiration for him going into music, amazing. I can say for sure that Gregory has done an incredible job and I recon Nat "King" Cole himself would be proud.

My favourite song on the album is actually The Christmas Song, the original of which is my second favourite Christmas song (beaten only by Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl), which Gregory does full justice to. He almost matches the perfection of the original with his voice rising and falling to match the orchestra accompanying him on the album effortlessly and conveying all the emotion and joy of the lyrics. My favourite non-Christmas song is When Love Was King, which is the only song written and recorded by Gregory himself, it was fully inspired by Nat and originally appears on his third album Liquid Spirit. It makes sense that it appears on this album fitting perfectly with the other songs and is such an emotive uplifting song about how the world should be, it sounds just like something Nat himself would have sung and Gregory brings that across when he sings it.

Honourable mentions for this album go to Smile and I Wonder Who My Daddy Is. I shall start with Smile, which i'm aware was originally by Charlie Chaplin so this is a cover of a cover but it is brilliant, I have always though Nat's version is the best and there have been a lot of versions. Gregory matches that bringing the same quality and joy to the song that Nat did, plus that note he holds towards the end is divine. Then we have I Wonder Who My Daddy Is which was originally recorded by Nat's brother Freddy and describes issues with his distant father, which Gregory experienced himself. This experience make for a very emotional song that you can really feel with Gregory going deeper and  putting everything into it.

To finish off then here are my ratings for each song on the album;

1. Mona Lisa - 8.5/10

2. Smile - 9/10

3. Nature Boy - 7.5/10

4. L-O-V-E - 8.10

5. Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) - 7.5/10

6. Miss Otis Regrets - 7.5/10

7. Pick Yourself Up - 8/10

8. When Love Was King - 9.5/10

9. The Lonely One - 8.5/10

10. Ballerina - 8.5/10

11. I Wonder Who My Daddy Is - 9/10

12. The Christmas Song - 9.5/10