Penthouse Serenade / Piano Style of Nat King Cole

Had Nat Cole never sang a note, he still would have ranked among the top jazz pianists of all time. His first record for Capitol, the 1952 10" Penthouse Serenade (later issued as a 12" in 1955, which is the version we ve released here), was an all-instrumental outing seemingly intended to put his more freewheeling Trio days behind him, a fairly straightforward set of numbers with a moody, contemplative streak that lifted them above the standard cocktail lounge into, well, the penthouse! We ve paired that record with Nat s enthusiastic 1956 return to the keyboard on the all-instrumental The Piano Style of Nat King Cole , a Nelson Riddle-arranged project of which Nat was so fond he picked 16 songs to record, which was a lot in those days (this CD squeezes the two albums in at the outermost limit of 80 minutes). Half accompanied by strings, half accompanied by an orchestra, Nat truly does display his Piano Style at its best here.