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John Pizzarelli and Ramsey Lewis bring their Nat 'King' Cole tribute to the Merriam on Friday

Guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli and pianist Ramsey Lewis share their love of Nat King Cole';s smooth jazz/pop sound in a themed concert.

Pianist Ramsey Lewis credits Nat King Cole as an influence on his 1965 pop-jazz hit "The In Crowd."
Pianist Ramsey Lewis credits Nat King Cole as an influence on his 1965 pop-jazz hit "The In Crowd."Read moreASSOCIATED PRESS

Today, John Pizzarelli is well-known as a sophisticated singer and guitarist, able to bridge the worlds of jazz and pop in elegant and witty ways. But in 1980, he was still a relatively shallow 20-year-old struggling to connect with the richness of experience represented by many classic jazz lyrics. That made his discovery of Nat King Cole particularly momentous.

"The Nat King Cole Trio's material was an introduction to everything that was great about music," Pizzarelli recalls. "They could sound like a big band or they could sound intimate, you could play jazz on it, and the songs had a sense of humor. And the songs weren't deep, like [Billy Strayhorn's] 'Lush Life.' If you were singing 'Route 66,' you were singing about a highway. You didn't have to have an emotional investment in the song, so the material was perfect for me at 20 years old. It was a great way to break in."

At 80, Ramsey Lewis is 25 years older than Pizzarelli, but the pianist remembers his own introduction to Cole in similar terms.

Lewis' father came home one day with two albums under his arm: one by Art Tatum, the other by the Nat King Cole Trio. At the age of 12, Lewis was daunted by Tatum's famously breakneck, virtuosic playing. "I thought it was Mr. Art and Mr. Tatum," he jokes. "It was a bit much for me."

When he heard Cole, on the other hand, he thought, "This was more like it. Nat Cole was a swinging piano player. Everything about his playing was about forward momentum and getting the most out of each note."

For the last few years, Pizzarelli and Lewis have joined forces to pay homage to their shared inspiration with Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Nat King Cole Tribute. They'll bring the show, which features many of Cole's best-known hits, to Philly for the first time at the Merriam Theater on Friday.

Before he died in 1965, far too young at 45, Cole was one of the most popular performers in the country. A gifted jazz pianist, his lush baritone voice brought him to even greater prominence, scoring crossover hits with songs like "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Nature Boy," "Mona Lisa," and "Route 66." He also helped break down racial barriers, becoming one of the first African Americans to host his own television show and providing a dapper, sophisticated role model for viewers.

So groundbreaking was Cole's ability to cross the borders between jazz and pop it was still a novelty when Lewis achieved similar success with his own 1965 pop-jazz hits, "The In Crowd" and "Hang On Sloopy." Lewis acknowledges Cole's influence but says the roots of that success go back even further, to his childhood playing in his family's Chicago church.

"When you're playing gospel music in church, if you don't reach out and touch one way or another, they look at you askance," he says. "My dad was not only the choir director, he was one of the lead singers, and he got people to move and respond. So no matter what I'm playing, whether it's an up-tempo jazz piece or a ballad or 'The In Crowd,' the whole idea is to reach out and touch people."

Pizzarelli shares both artists' love for multiple forms of music. The son of jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (who recorded with Cole on one occasion), John recorded Cole's songs as far back as his first album, 1983's I'm Hip (Please Don't Tell My Father). Eleven years later, he released the tribute album Dear Mr. Cole with pianist Benny Green and bassist Christian McBride, and followed that in 1999 with P.S. Mr. Cole.

In recent years, he has recorded an album of jazz renditions of Paul McCartney songs and blended jazz and classic rock songs on Double Exposure. He's created a similar hybrid in the new show, setting "Welcome to the Club," a song Cole recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra, to the tune of "The In Crowd."

"Nat Cole was able to be a popular figure and cross over lines," Pizzarelli says. "People loved him because he was great at what he did, and he was able to make music that everybody loved. What I do is try to make jazz accessible to everyone without compromising the music. You're still hearing great jazz even if you're hearing a Beatles song or a Tom Waits song or a Nat Cole song."

Both men use the word fun repeatedly when discussing their experiences on the road together and look forward to continuing the collaboration. Lewis muses, "We like Nat Cole's music, we like playing his music individually and together - we'll probably do this show for the rest of our lives."

Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Nat King Cole Tribute

Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli at 8 p.m. Friday at the Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St.
Tickets: $30-$93.
Information: 215-893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org