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Journalism of Courage
Natalie Cole titled her most recent album Leavin8217;, but it could just as easily have been titled Comin8217; Home after an Unforgettable decade and a half.
Released in the fall, Leavin8217; found Cole returning to the R038;B sound that made her a star in the mid-8217;70s, when This Will Be earned her the 1975 Grammy for best female R038;B vocal performance; she also won that year8217;s Grammy for best new artist.
This Will Be broke Aretha Franklin8217;s eight-year hold on the R038;B award 8212; a Rolling Stone cover story at the time dubbed Cole the next Aretha 8212; and Cole includes a cover of Franklin8217;s 1972 hit Day Dreaming on her new album.
The title track, written by Shelby Lynne, metaphorically puts a little distance between the original R038;B diva and the pop star Cole became in 1991 with the release of Unforgettable With Love, faithful interpretations of standards and pre-rock pop songs associated with her father, legendary crooner and pianist Nat 8216;King8217; Cole. The title track was a studio-created duet with her father, who died of lung cancer in 1965.
8220;When I did the Unforgettable record, that catapulted me into a whole different phase in my career, so for the last 17 years, that8217;s what I8217;ve been doing,8217;8217; Cole says. 8220;Leavin8217; was my way of saying, 8216;Been there, done enough of that, need some fresh meat.8217; Being able to return to my roots, so to speak, with this record was a lot of fun and felt very liberating, it really did.8217;8217;
The return to familiar roots did force Cole to bust her own chops, and on Leavin8217;, she sounds a little freer, less restrained than on her standards-focused recordings. Cole says R038;B and jazz 8220;are far apart from one another when you actually sit down to perform it8212;your chops are totally different. In R038;B, you can get away with being flat, being sharp; you have to have much more vibrato. With jazz, you cannot get away with being flat or sharp; you8217;ve got to be tone on tone. You don8217;t need as much power when you8217;re singing jazz.8217;8217;
8220;So I had to kind of retrain my voice to be able to flip back and forth and do both. I think it8217;s because I was doing R038;B but was raised on jazz that I had that sensibility, and it was just a matter of executing vocally what I needed to do. But it does require something entirely different.8217;8217;
As for choosing the material on Leavin8217;, Cole says she knew some artists8217; work, while other songs were picked from 600 recommended by David Monk, a New Yorker whom Cole describes as 8220;part publisher, part human jukebox8221;.
Cole compares picking songs to picking clothes. 8220;In fashion, they talk about 8216;That dress is wearing her, she8217;s not wearing the dress, it looks too perfect for her,8217; which to me is not natural,8221; she says. 8220;It should look like it was made exactly for me, and that8217;s kind of what I try to do with my music. If it doesn8217;t fit, I don8217;t force it. When it works, it takes on a life of its own and you8217;re comfortable right away. You shouldn8217;t have to labor so hard8212;it8217;s not nuclear science, doesn8217;t have to be that complicated.8217;8217;
-Richard Harrington LAT-WP
