Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/07/2025
7:30 pm
Location
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Category(ies)
Friends of Music present “Jazz for the City: The Acid Cole Trio” at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Before he became a pioneering international pop singing sensation, Nat “King” Cole earned acclaim as a first-rate jazz pianist whose trio set a heady standard for its impeccable taste, urbane instrumental interplay, and joyous sense of swing. Indeed, the group started off as King Cole & His Swingsters before changing its name to the Nat “King” Cole Trio.
The original lineup teamed Cole with the superb guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince. Its drummer-free lineup repeatedly soared in the late 1930s and early 1940s, although it was thanks to “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Route 66,” and other classics that featured Cole’s luminous vocals that led to major stardom.
Nat Cole’s legacy as an instrumentalist and band leader is saluted by Los Angeles’ Acid Cole Trio. The group teams Grammy-winning pianist and arranger Bill Cunliffe with Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau bassist Darek Oles, and guitarist Larry Koonse (Grammy nominations with Bob Mintzer (All L.A. Band) and Peter Erskine (Dr. Um)). Oles and Koonse are also co-leaders of the long-established Los Angeles Jazz Quartet. They have played together in various groups for thirty years, and have a unique synchronicity harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically. They will perform original Nat Cole arrangements, originals, and newly discovered charts from the early Ahmad Jamal piano/guitar/bass trio.
There is free street parking around PPC all day Saturdays. Admission is free with a voluntary offering. For more information, click here.
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