Unlike most brothers who have succeeded in jazz, Nat and Freddy Cole have not taken individual paths on different instruments. They both chose to play piano and sing popular standards -- and most problematically, they sound astoundingly similar. "I can't help it," Freddy Cole says, "Most brothers' voices sound alike."

Very few brothers' voices are among the most famous in pop-music history, however. Watching Freddy Cole perform can be a strange, dizzying experience. His voice has much the same gravelly richness as Nat's; it's a hot-oatmeal voice, soothing and good. It inevitably evokes memories of Nat Cole -- old memories, of course. In a few phrases, the whole lost era of "Mona Lisa" and "Your Hit Parade," Sinatra, Doris Day and Ella Fitzgerald. That Cole sound is alive again, and it's exhilarating but unnerving, like seeing a lost loved one strolling in a dream.