Nat King Cole’s ‘After Midnight: The Complete Sessions’ Joins Tone Poet Series
An expanded 2-LP reissue is coming soon in celebration of the jazz masterpiece’s 70th anniversary.
Blue Note is set to reissue Nat King Cole‘s landmark 1956 album After Midnight as part of its Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series. The expanded 2-LP edition arrives November 13, just in time to mark the record’s 70th anniversary.
Titled After Midnight: The Complete Sessions, the reissue gathers everything Cole recorded across four sessions at Capitol Studios in August and September of 1956. Backing him were his longtime trio members John Collins on guitar, Charlie Harris on bass, and Lee Young on drums, joined by a rotating cast of jazz heavyweights including saxophonist Willie Smith, trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison, violinist Stuff Smith, trombonist Juan Tizol, and percussionist Jack Costanza.
The album has long stood out in Cole’s catalog for highlighting him as both a vocalist and pianist in a looser, more improvisational setting than his usual trio work. As always, “Tone Poet” himself Joe Harley oversaw the reissue, and mastering engineer Kevin Gray cut the new pressing directly from the original analogue tapes. The 18-track set spans two LPs and includes such staples as “Sweet Lorraine,” “Caravan,” and “Route 66,” along with an alternate take of “You’re Looking At Me.”
The full package includes a gatefold tip-on jacket, rare photos, and liner notes from journalist and Cole scholar Will Friedwald. In his essay, Friedwald notes: “Cole’s piano playing itself is just as good on After Midnight but the strength of the album is that he’s playing and singing like a man on a lark—just out to enjoy himself—rather than a man whose life’s mission was to raise the bar for the possibilities of small ensemble playing.”
Cole’s legacy speaks for itself: his catalog includes nearly 40 albums, more than 150 charting singles, and over 50 million records sold. He was the first Black man to ever host a national television show, NBC’s “The Nat King Cole Show,” and also starred in multiple movies during his career, including St. Louis Blues and Cat Ballou. He died in 1965 at the age of 45—he was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from NARAS and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
