Pianist and singer Hugo Jennings will be leading a celebration of the music of Nat King Cole at the Sands End Arts and Community Centre on Sunday 12th May. He will be joined by some of the finest musicians in London to present a varied programme from different eras of the career of one of jazz's foremost names.
Hugo first led a concert of this type in a special sold out evening at the World Heart Beat Concert Hall in Embassy Gardens as part of the 2023 Battersea Jazz Festival, of which he is the founder and director.
Part of this programme will featurerepertoire mainly from Nat King Cole's original trio with Oscar Moore and Wesley Prince, with whom he had some of his earliest hits in the 1940s for the Excelsior and Capitol record labels. As well as his fame as a singer, Cole was one of the truly great jazz pianists of the 20th century, and many of his and Oscar Moore's compositions are some of the most underrated pieces of music in the jazz repertoire. The band will also feature some of the most famous hits from later on in his career, including arrangements of some of his albums with big bands and full orchestras.
Hugo Jennings is a jazz and classical musician based in South London. Inspired by many great pianists, singers, and instrumentalists of the bebop and swing idioms, he has performed at a variety of venues in London including The Clapham Grand, Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club, The Junction, Hampstead Jazz Club, Battersea Power Station, and many more. As well as being the founder and director of the highly successful Battersea Jazz Festival, he has been the conductor of Social London Orchestra since May 2022 and the conductor of South London Jazz Orchestra since January 2024.
