Natalie Cole
Ask a Woman Who Knows

Posted on Paul Katz's Place for Entertainment
13 April 2003

IN SUM: The album is the new chapter to Natalie Cole's thrilling songbook of love. It also certifies Miss Cole’s full-circle move into jazz music.

NATALIE Cole’s recordings since 1991's Unforgettable with Love form a well-orchestrated songbook on love: all of them revisit the jazzy vocal tradition of her father, the late, great Nat King Cole. Ask a Woman who Knows is the new chapter to this thrilling songbook. It also certifies Miss Cole’s full-circle move into jazz music: it is her first under the strictly jazz catalogued Verve Records and has copped several jazz nominations at the 2003 Grammy Awards.

The arrangers did a terrific job at weaving Miss Cole's soaring vocal with the strings and percussion. This is clear on “So Many Stars”, which is one of the most luxuriant recordings she has done in years. The lush, cinematic intro brings me back to days of my childhood, when I thoroughly enjoyed the Sergio Mendes original.

I am pleasantly surprised to hear Michael Franks' “Tell Me All about It” and Bob Telson's “Calling You”, and I am glad that she has brought them back in from obscurity.

The best cuts are the two Dinah Washington originals, “Ask a Woman Who Knows” and “I Haven't Got Anything to Do”. With her stylish technique, imagine what she can do with the whole Dinah Washington torch songbook.

The one track that I am not too happy about is “Better than Ever”. Diana Krall's often-wistful voice drowns easily under Miss Cole's playfulness. On first hearing, I was hoping for a scat or harmony over the main line, but even that would work better between Miss Cole and someone else of similar technique and range—Diaane Shuur or Dianne Reeves, perhaps. Miss Cole may have recorded this track in reverence to her new “family”, as Miss Krall is a Verve artist herself. 

I do not think this album surpasses Unforgettable with Love: everything about the latter was a unique excitement. Still, Ask a Woman who Knows is an elegant outing worth adding to one's “Must Listen To” list.