Best-known in its Nat King Cole version, ‘Nature Boy’ is one of the most recorded popular songs of the modern era. It’s enigmatic and hypnotic with an ethereal,l magic quality and maybe that’s the reason why it’s been covered so many times.
Now to hundreds of extant versions of the song, we can add a new one – from Edinburgh music duo EDY FOREY (vocalist Edy Szewy and pianist Guilhem Forey who call their music “urban Jazz”). We first got to know them and their quirky, unique sound last autumn via their single ‘Fire’ . We were told that the track was taken from the duo’s forthcoming album ‘Culture Today’ an indeed that’s the source of this new ‘Nature Boy’.
Edy explains why they tackled such a familiar song: “It’s a jazz classic reharmonised in a very ‘Foreyesque’ fashion. The Rhodes are warm, and with the unusual chord progression the atmosphere in the song is beautiful in a mysterious way. We chose this standard due to the depth of the lyrics ‘the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return’. God is love, so this philosophy is fitting. Love as the answer to life, for good and for worse. We added some lyrics on the B part stating just that.”
The new ‘Nature Boy’ is enhanced by input from much-respected Japanese jazz singer and flugelhorn player Toku as well as Tom Gordon, widely considered to be the one of the leading drummers in Scotland, having been a vital part of the prestigious BBC Big Band for many years. Between them all, they deliver a fresh perspective on something very familiar.
EDY FOREY’S ‘Nature Boy’ released 26th January; album ‘Culture Today’ – April ’24 via So Soul Records.
