Nat King Cole Trio The Macgregor Yea

Easily the longest of any Capitol single-disc compilation, 2005's The World of Nat King Cole also benefits from a fresh remastering of its material to make it the best introduction to the interpretive brilliance of Nat King Cole. Nearly all the hits that need to be here are indeed present: "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Route 66," "Nature Boy," "Too Young," and "Mona Lisa." The compilers also wisely chose a few representative songs to replace some of the middling hits; the only surprise is the absence of "The Christmas Song" and "Lush Life," although the chart hits – "Answer Me, My Love," "Pretend," "Looking Back," and the much-maligned "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer" – are missing for good reasons.

Nat King Cole - The Complete Early Transcriptions Of The King Cole Trio: 1938-1941 (1991) {4CD Box Set Vintage Jazz Classics}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 621 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 536 Mb
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© 1991 Vintage Jazz Classics | VJC-1026/27/28/29-2
Jazz / Blues / Vocal / Jump Blues / Swing / Vocal Jazz / Traditional Pop

This four-CD set contains 112 performances by the Trio from 1938-1941, radio transcriptions made especially to be played on the air. The early trio is instantly recognizable and, although there is a greater reliance on group vocals and guest singers (including Bonnie Lake, Juanelda Carter, Pauline and Her Perils, and the Dreamers) rather than on Cole's solo vocals, the music is not all that different from what the King Cole Trio would be playing a few years later when they became much better known.

Considering how well he improvised at the piano, Nat King Cole's rise to fame was gruelingly gradual. Volume Two in the Classics Nat King Cole chronology contains all of the recordings he made between July 22, 1940 and March 14, 1941. His trio, a sharp little unit containing guitarist Oscar Moore and string bassist Wesley Prince, spent much of the year 1940 holding down a steady gig in the Radio Room, a small club located at 1539 Vine Street in Hollywood. It was there that they polished their act to perfection, ignored by both the public at large and the major record labels. As King Cole's Swingsters, they did manage to cut a small number of records for the Davis & Schwegler transcription service, a sleazy little fly by night outfit that soon went bankrupt, leaving the recordings unreleased and the musicians unpaid…