SJO show pays tribute to Cole legacy

He was the king of Christmas swing – or should we say, the Nat King.

The Spokane Jazz Orchestra will celebrate Nat King Cole’s holiday legacy Saturday night, with guest artist Horace Alexander Young.

You’ll hear Cole’s iconic songs, including his biggest Christmas hit of all, “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”). The 1963 album that contained that song has appeared on Billboard’s Christmas charts every decade since it was recorded.

The program includes other familiar Cole holiday songs such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “The Christmas Waltz,” as well a “sprinkling of his non-Christmas hits,” said Tom Molter, the SJO’s music director.

Young should prove to be a particularly adept interpreter of these Nat King Cole classics. He’s an in-demand vocal coach and arranger, having worked with such big names as B.B. King and the Manhattans.

And he’s even more in demand as a performer, having appeared in 19 countries as both vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.

Young, a former Washington State University music professor, appeared with the SJO in 2007, interpreting the songs of Frank Sinatra and Cole. He is skilled at capturing not just the voice, but also the “character” that made these singers great.

While Young will fill the concert’s second half, the first half will have an entirely different flavor.

“We have a theme for the whole year called ‘Always a Classic,’ and the first half will feature just the SJO playing music of a classical bent,” Molter said.

It will include parts of the famous Duke Ellington arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” and the premiere of an arrangement by Molter and local pianist Arnie Carruthers of Prokofiev’s well-known troika from “Lieutenant Kije,” also known as the “Midnight Sleigh Ride.”

The 17-piece SJO will sport some unusual – for a jazz band – instrumentation for some of these pieces. You’ll hear piccolo, flutes and tubas.