Pianist and composer Charles Nathan (1921-2012) is best known for a hit he wrote for Perry Como back in the 1950s, called “Say You’re Mine Again”. Fast forward about 4 score years, and son Greg has released an album of his dad’s compositions in solo piano format, most of which I guarantee you’ve never heard before, but then again, may cause you to say to yourself, “This sounds like something I’m familiar with”.
And what would that “familiar” thing be? Namely, the Tin Pan Alley days in the early years of swing, when guys like Eubie Blake, Hoagy Carmichael, Richard Rogers and Fats Waller. Greg plays almost all of the songs as they were probably conceived, in the stride fashion of the day, heavy on lyricism and melody. These are the types of songs that the likes of Bix, Louis, Billie and Benny would take and create a whole new genre of sound out of, namely “jazz”.
Pieces such as “One Heart of Gold” have a sighingly blue, melancholy feel, but with a tinge of tango, while the left and right hands exchange conversation as the ivories get tickled on “Doubt”. There’s a bouncy sing-song joy to “That’s The Story Of My Life”, and all we need are some laconic lyrics from Hoagy himself to fill in the reflective “Come Home My Love” and “It May Be Difficult”. Nathan gets a bit elliptical on the Satie-esque “Change Places” and he’s in a mist a bit on the impressionistic title track. But these songs were also the reflections of an era when the composer was king, and musicians waited in line to try their own unique signature of a song.
Some young cat needs to take these tunes and either put in lyrics for a new songbook, or take out a horn and start blowing through the changes. He’ll sound so vintage, it will be brand new!
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