Natalie Cole on stage at the BB Mann
Grammy winner hits the stage in Fort Myers for one night only
SPECIAL TO _FLORIDA WEEKLY

COURTESY PHOTO

Natalie Cole's new album "Leavin'" is simultaneously a bold point of departure and a moving return to form for one of music's most accomplished vocalists. The recent release from Verve Records is an inspiring piece of work that finds Cole revealing her soulful roots after a decade during which she enjoyed unprecedented global success as an interpreter of the standards. Her success during this time ushered in a wave of similar crossover smashes from other artists and added to an already whopping lifetime album sales figure that now tops 30 million worldwide.

Cole returns to the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall for one performance, Friday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m.

Now with "Leavin'", which Cole collaborated on closely with famed R&B producer Dallas Austin (TLC, Boyz II Men, Madonna, Janet Jackson, etc.), the eight-time Grammy Award winning, chart-topping vocalist has managed to make a decidedly eclectic collection of cover songs her own. The outstanding tracks include a vivid update of the 1972 Aretha Franklin classic "Day Dreaming" to more surprising covers from a wide range of contemporary artists including imaginative interpretations of songs by Fiona Apple ("Criminal"), Shelby Lynne ("Leavin'"), as well as surprising takes on Neil Young's classic "Old Man," and the Isley Brothers' sexy bedroom jam "Don't Say Goodnight (It's Time For Love)."

"Leavin'" does not represent the second coming of Natalie Cole, more like the third or fourth coming, actually. Cole, the daughter of the late great Nat "King" Cole, first made her own name with a series of albums for Capitol Records in the Seventies and early Eighties that found her working with the writing and producing team of Marvin Yancy and Chuck Jackson. Albums like "Inseparable," "Natalie," "Thankful" and "Unpredictable" included an impressive stream of hit songs, including no less than five number 1 hits on the Black Singles chart: "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)," "Inseparable," "Sophisticated Lady (She's A Different Lady)," "I've Got Love On My Mind" and "Our Love." In 1975, Cole won the Grammy for Best New Artist as well as the award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The next year she won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Sophisticated Lady (She's A Different Lady)." During the remainder of the Eighties after leaving Capitol, she worked with a number of different labels and producers, and continued to record more hits like "Miss You Like Crazy" and a smash cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" that effectively reinvented a retro rocker into a major dance smash.

Her career again took a major turn with the release of "Unforgettable: With Love," an album that rightly went to the top of the Billboard Album charts and won the Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, while the song "Unforgettable," which used groundbreaking technology to allow her to duet with her late father's voice, received the Grammy for Record Of The Year.

Following this wildly popular and influential release, Cole's career took a jazzier turn, and her recordings won further Grammy accolades during the Nineties, including Best Jazz Vocal for "Take A Look" in 1993 and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "When I Fall In Love" in 1996. Now once again with "Leavin'", she has taken a creative leap forward only this time in a direction that is both familiar and fresh.