By Marilyn Lester***While jazz and popular singer, pianist and actor Nat King Cole is certainly still remembered today, probably most people don’t realize how very popular he was in his lifetime or the many extraordinary quantum successes of his career. He was
not only an innovator, but in almost three decades of entertaining worldwide (he died in 1965 at age 45), recorded over 100 songs that became huge hits on the pop chart. James Rich Salutes Nat King Cole at 54 Below put a spotlight on much of Cole’s greatness. And he did it with finesse and smart choices.
Rich, like many tribute artists (not impersonators), find themselves in the “profession” because they look and sound like the icon they sing about. Such a path can be a curse and a blessing. Rich has a large “other career” as an actor and entertainer, so his Cole work is only part of what he does, even if a sizeable part. But he enters the Cole arena with reverence and respect, and he dove right into the deep end of the pool with one of the most famous tunes in the Cole repertoire, “Nature Boy” (eden ahbez). This is a number that’s been covered countless times in many ways. Rich’s version, a Latinized blues put the Rich stamp on the number from the outset. The following song (which by the way Cole resisted recording and which became one of his biggest hits), “Stardust” (Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parrish) was performed with a unique R&B twist.
If Rich was pressed into this line of work, as he reports, by numerous associates who compared him to Cole, he’s taken on the mantle with a gentility that’s also much like the “original”—and with a body of knowledge that addresses the man Cole and not the legend, i.e. marriages and love, family background and other life events. Nat Cole didn’t start his career aiming to be a vocalist. He was a jazz man, a pianist with a trio that innovated its composition with piano, bass and guitar—no drums. But with a warm, smooth voice, the trio found greater success when Cole began to sing. Their first chart hit, 1943’s “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” a jazzy tune written by Cole, was soon followed by more hits: “Sweet Lorraine” (Cliff Burwell, Mitchell Parish), “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Billy Rose) and Bobby Troup’s swinging “Route 66”—all sung by Rich with authenticity.
The greater world of James Rich includes james-rich Entertainment, a theatrical production company dedicated to the development of musicals and plays about exceptional men in Black history. Rich has written There Was a Boy, musical about Cole 
that debuted in 2020 and is still a work in progress. The research that went into that project is the basis of the narrative of Rich’s cabaret salute. Many of the songs in the set are ones included in the musical, which features 29 numbers total, helping to tell the story of Nat King Cole’s musical legacy in two acts. The music for There Was a Boy was arranged by Matt Falker a jazz and gospel pianist-arranger, vocalist and clinician, with the creative variation of style in the sampling here. He also music directed this show, with bassist James Cammack and drummer Dave Tedeschi. The musical’s director, Duane Boutté also brought his talents to this cabaret outing.
It was entirely fitting that the charming Rich ended Salutes Nat King Cole with a straight-ahead ballad version of “The Christmas Song” (Robert Wells, Mel Tormé); Cole’s 1960 recording still ranks #3 on Billboard’s Top 10 Most Popular Songs.
