It often surprises people when I say that Mr. Cole is my favorite jazz pianist. The reason for their surprise is, alas, all too easy to understand: Most of the King Cole Trio's studio recordings for Capitol, cut between 1943 and 1950, have been out of print for years. But Hep Records, a Scottish label whose releases are readily available in this country, has just put out a CD called "Nat King Cole and His Trio: The Forgotten 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert" in which Mr. Cole's gleaming, darting pianism can be heard to good advantage.
I have vivid memories of the King Cole Trio dating back to the '40s, when I was very young. I remember playing in the living room while my grandmother did the ironing. The radio would be tuned in to a guy named Doug Arthur. The Cole Trio was standard fare. No little kid could fail to remember Cole's wondrously deft piano playing.
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