10 Essential Albums From the Singles Era

For better or for worse, the last few years have seen the music business move back into being a very singles driven medium. With the dominance of streaming services making physical musical media a shadow of what it used to be, more and more artists are seeing that the big money is in singles that … Continue reading 10 Essential Albums From the Singles Era →

Essential Albums: Nat King Cole’s After Midnight

It was 1956, and Nat King Cole was ready to go back to his roots. Since the Nat King Cole Trio truly broke out in 1946 with their version of The Brown Dots song “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” Cole had gradually been doing less and less piano playing, instead focusing on his singing. … Continue reading Essential Albums: Nat King Cole’s After Midnight →

Album Review: Louis Armstrong – Live in Europe

Imagine being dead for almost 50 years, but having left behind such an incredible legacy of material that new releases are still worthy of discussion compared to the best albums of the year. This is the case with Live in Europe, a "new" live album by the legendary Louis Armstrong.

Nat King Cole at 100

This year makes 100 years since the birth of the legendary Nat King Cole. Although he has been gone for even longer than he was here, his influence is felt in every corner of the music world. Cole was a world class pianist in his own right, but found greater fame as a vocalist. Many standards were first sung by Nat King Cole; even more were better sung by him.