I don’t care if it was inspired by Nat King Cole’s 100th birthday celebration or the 50th anniversary of the first Mets World Championship, but this 7 disc collection of the fledgling years of Nat “King” Cole is an essential find for any fan of singing, music or life itself. Mixing previously unheard material kept safe by the Cole Estate with better known Pre-Capitol tracks, the just under 200 songs captures the rise of a jive singing pianist with his early trio slowly rising in confidence and stardom, mixing in his classic trio of guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller or Wesley Prince with some classic summit meetings.
The real fun is when you take these 7 discs and play them in either chronological or reverse chronological order. From these perspectives, you get to see how Cole and company slowly evolved from a swing based jive talking group of hep cats to a focal point of small group swing. Most of the songs here are of his trio, collected through private recordings, regular and unreleased studio sides and radio transcriptions all in conjunction with Cole’s estate, and the set, notes and music ooze respect and celebration of the music.
There are many versions of his “classic” early hits, including the very first versions of “Sweet Lorraine” as well as “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (complete with the rare vocal intro). Songs not known to even be recorded before include privately recorded “The Romany Room is Jumpin,” a jukebox-recording version “Trompin’” and a 1940 trio take of “Whatcha’ Know Joe.” The sumptuous booklet includes interviews and comments by the likes of brother Freddy Cole as well as contemporaries Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte and Johnny Mathis.
But it’s the music that you’re going to be panting after, and besides the expected iconic tunes (that include some wild novelty pieces such as “Slew Foot Joe” and “Fudge Wudge”), you get the absolutely classic session in which Lester Young sat in for state of the art renditions of pieces like “I Can’t Get Started” and “Indiana.” A Pres-influenced and young Dexter Gordon joins in with Harry “Sweets” Edison as well on hip takes of “I Blowed And Gone” and “I Found A New Baby.” Vocalist Anita Boyer joins in for some material in 1941 supported by Cole’s trio with Wesley Prince on bass on some transcriptions for gem reads of “Lazy River” and “You’ve Changed.”
The trio showed how to tear through the instrumentals as on “Trompin’”, “Jump Jack, Jump” and “I Like To Riff” for example, they could get lovingly lyrical on “Honeysuckle Rose,” and they weren’t above silly songs such as “Goin’ To Town With Honey” “A Little Jive Is Good For You” or “Slender, Tender, and Tall.” That was just the way it was back then; you threw something against the wall, and see if it stuck, such as “Straighten Up and Fly Right” or I’m An Errand Boy For Rhythm.”
Cole’s voice gets richer each year, starting with a youthful sparkle and sounding confident and warm by the end, not the La Brea Tar Pit deep of his later years. The harmonies between the three on pieces like “Gone With The Draft” started an entire vocal trend, as did the idea of a drumless jazz combo. Also, not to be overlooked, is the subtle guitar mastery of Oscar Moore. Perennially overlooked, this collection affirms his consistent clarity, cohesion and clever use of notes on both instrumentals and intros to vocals tunes. Pieces like “Syncopated Lullaby,” “Jumpy Jitters,” “Jumpin’ With The Mop” and “Nothing Ever Happens” are delightful Bon Mots. As they say in The Maltese Falcon, “These are the things that dreams are made of.” Echoes of an era that still resound today. Historical box set of the year?