I'm coming home from dropping our daughter off at grandma's ... so we can paint the house ... and when I say paint the house, I mean PAINT THE HOUSE ... and I hear two great tunes in a row on KKJZ-FM (88.1). I stopped the car and made a note to check them out on the station's playlist.

The first tune I knew who it was mmediately, the second I wasn't so sure about, but the KKJZ playlist helped me figure it all out. And the list has been revamped to include links that allow you to search for the track on iTunes (where it may or may not be for sale).

I first heard "What'll I Do" by the Nat King Cole Trio, from "The Very Best of Nat King Cole." I think that's Oscar Moore on guitar, one of the unsung (or is it unstrummed?) heroes of the instrument, who plays countless classic solos all over Nat Cole's catalog. The record is from 1947, Moore's final year with Cole. For the guitar-geeky in the audience, you can hear the clear sound of Gibson's P-90 pickups, and he's just so musical and swinging. I can imagine someone scatting those lines -- there really is a vocal quality to his playing that makes it so very enjoyable to hear.

I didn't know anything about this, but after Moore left the Cole trio, according to Wikipedia, he played with his brother Johnny Moore through the mid-'50s., made a Cole tribute album in 1965, but otherwise didn't play out and became a bricklayer in Los Angeles.

The second tune I heard was an organ trio's version of "Puttin' on the Ritz." I'd never heard that tune played on the Hammond B3, and the player had a pretty good command of the instrument. I could hear him soloing with the right hand only -- I wasn't even sure if he was doing a left-hand bass, let alone using the bass pedals. But it was a model of B3 soulfulness. The guitarist took great care with the comping, leaving the organist little need to keep the left hand going. It wasn't Grant Green (there's rhythm playing on it), it didn't sound like George Benson or Kenny Burrell. But the organist could be Jimmy Smith ...

Turns out it's Sherman Oaks' own Larry Goldings on the B3, with the great Peter Bernstein on guitar from the "Light Blue" disc, which is so rare that a used copy on Amazon is selling for $69.99. Sheesh.

Check out Larry Goldings and local guitar legend-in-the-making Anthony Wilson in a duo from Dec. 13 to 15 at the Jazz Bakery. And pray for a Peter Bernstein's return to the West Coast.

Larry Golding's Web site is currently "under construction," but like every musician these days, he's on MySpace. Anthony Wilson is also on MySpace, and after the duo gig ends, he's playing an additional solo show at the Bakery on Dec. 16. Anthony Wilson solo -- could be very interesting. And since one MySpace page leads to another, one of Anthony's MySpace "friends" is Joe Bagg, the organist on Wilson's records, and one of L.A.'s leading B3 players.