Weekend Wround-Up: Pat Metheny, Nat "King" Cole and More!

Weekend Wround-Up: Pat Metheny, Nat “King” Cole and More!

August 19, 2011 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

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Analogue Productions continues its indispensable SACD reissue series of some of Nat King Cole’s finest releases on the Capitol label with the September 13 arrival of Just One of Those Things (1957) and St. Louis Blues (1958). Billy May handles the orchestrations for Just One of Those Things, which is playable as follows: a three-channel SACD section and Stereo SACD section include all songs except for the alternate take of “Just For The Fun Of It,” which was recorded in mono. There is a Mono SACD section with all songs included. The Stereo CD section includes the same content as the SACD Stereo section and the Mono CD section includes all songs. Nelson Riddle arranges and conducts St. Louis Blues, a collection of W.C. Handy’s greatest songs. All tracks are playable as Three-Channel, Stereo and Mono on the SACD layer and playable as Stereo and Mono on the CD layer. “Overture/Hesitating Blues” has been restored to its original length on both the mono and stereo versions. These beautifully-remastered discs come highly recommended!

1987’s Still Life (Talking) by the Pat Metheny Group is coming on September 20 in a new reissue from Nonesuch. The album contains the popular “Last Train Home” as well as elements of fusion, Brazilian jazz-influenced harmonies and even folk and pop sounds. Metheny on guitar is joined by Mark Ledford and David Blamires (vocals), Lyle Mays (piano/keyboards), Steve Rodby (acoustic and electric bass), Paul Wertico (drums) and Armando Marcal (percussion/vocals). Metheny fans are urged to check out his latest, 2011’s What’s It All About featuring radical reinventions of pop classics like “Alfie,” “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Would Be” and “Cherish.”

On September 13, U.K. label Sepia will release four titles (available due to copyright law in the U.K.) sure to interest jazz and vocal fans. Tony Mottola’s Roman Guitar and Mr. Big joins together those two albums by the accomplished guitarist for the first time on CD. Felicia Sanders’ 1958 That Certain Feeling and 1960 I Wish You Love show that there was more to the singer than just her chart-topping “Song from Moulin Rouge.” Sepia’s ongoing series of Jane Morgan reissues continues with The Ballads of Lady Jane and The Second Time Around LPs plus bonus tracks on one CD. Finally, Betty Madigan’s Am I Blue? and The Jerome Kern Songbook LPs receive the two-on-one treatment plus four pop singles as bonus tracks.

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Nat King Cole, Pat Metheny

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.