A Psalm

The Messenger; Laurence Hobgood, piano; Bob Amster, bass; Paul Wertico, drums; Kurt Elling, vocals

“Hosanna to the son of David!” cried the children on Palm Sunday. That really ticked off the priests and the scribes. “Do you hear what they are saying?”, they asked of Jesus. He replied, “Yes. Have you never read ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have created praise’?” Christ quoted the second verse from Psalm 8, the great creation Psalm of David.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordered strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

What doting mother, aunt, teacher or innocent bystander hasn’t blurted out “Out of the mouth of babes” when inadvertent yet ardent truths have spilled out of the innocent worldview of a youngling? Oddly enough, few people who make the utterance realize the source from which they quote.

I, personally, think of this portion of scripture when I hear the words of “Nature Boy”.

There was a boy

A very strange enchanted boy

They say he wandered very far, very far

Over land and sea

A little shy

And sad of eye

But very wise

Was he

_____

And then one day

One magic day he passed my way

And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings

This he said to me

“The greatest thing

You’ll ever learn

Is just to love

And be loved

In return”

Nat King Cole introduced us to this song in 1948 in D Minor, which, so I hear, is the saddest of all keys. The arrangement sways to an exotic beat with an almost Indian (India Indian) chant from the flute in the breaks, laying down a mattress of wonder on which the bewitching lyrics may lie.

Mr. Kurt Elling doesn’t meet the Nature Boy in the remote setting that Mr. King Cole does. Nature Boy and Mr. Elling rendezvous in a hip jazz club with rhythmic word play and inventive melodies, cousins to the original tune by George Aberle.

Before Mr. King Cole could release his famous recording of the song, he had to track down Mr. Aberle. They discovered him and his family living under the first “L” in the famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign above Los Angeles, subsisting on three dollars a week, sleeping outdoors and eating vegetables, fruits and nuts.

Of course, they found him there. I’m frankly surprised that they didn’t look there first. Where else would YOU look for the composer of a song like “Nature Boy”?

More than fifty versions exist of this song out there in the great discogrosphere. Grover Washington, Celine Dion, Sarah Vaughn, Woody Herman, Bobby Darin and Jose Feliciano probably give some of the more respectable performances of this treasure. But if you’re looking for something else, try Leonard Nimoy’s version from his album “The Touch of Leonard Nimoy” from 1969.

Credits: To David, for the Psalms. “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble.” I don’t need trouble in order to be comforted by Psalm 46.