Nat King Cole - Hittin' The Ramp

The name of Nat King Cole invariably reminds me of a film, “Cat Ballou.” I saw the movie in my high school days, 54 years ago! I don’t know an exact reason, as I didn’t so much as remember the story, even about a heroin, Jane Fonda. Only his existence, intermittently appearing onscreen to narrate the story, is still fresh in my memory. His voice was resonant and glossy. Later I learned Cole died of lung cancer four months before the film release.There were two big booms in Cole’s popularity in the past Japan. The first boom came when a Japanese Jazz magazine “Swing Journal” nominated as gold disc award for “The King Cole Trio : Vocal Classics” (Capitol, T591) and “The King Cole Trio : Instrumental Classics” (Capitol, T592) in the early 70s. The magazine spotlighted Cole’s no mean achievement as a piano player. Michael J. West wrote about Cole, though he credited Earl Hines as his greatest influence, was far more steeped in the blues, extended stride, doubling down on melody over obstinato. He was also an early adopter of the block chord, was among the first to write contrafacts, building new melodies on familiar chord changes. (JazzTimes, Dec.,’19) “Nat King Cole, Hittin’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1939-1943)” is a collection of his pre-Capitol years, mainly from transcription records. The sound quality is excellent. I really respect Resonance for their courteous work, as they always do. I like disc 6, in which you can enjoy Cole’s beautiful piano play on “Bedtime” and Oscar Moore’s excellent fingerings on “Fudge Wudge.” I can’t neither drop disc 3 & 4, where you’ll hear dream like a Cole’s celesta and Moore’s versatile guitar play. John McDonough writes in his disk review, the faddish slang of a revolt against schmaltz blinks like a neon sign, but Cole’s pianism illustrates the sublime intellect of a master virtuoso at the hight of his powers. (DownBeat, Dec.,’19) It’s a real disappointment that Moore didn’t make himself conspicuous after he walked away from the Cole trio, at the pinnacle of the trio’s success, and several years’ worth of critical and popular awards to his credit. According to Nick Rossi, he spent his final years in pursuing fishing skills and writing for fishing publications. What a loss! He might become a guitar giant as a successor of Charlie Christian.The second boom came when Natalie Cole released “unforgettable,” a duet album with her dead father. Japanese Cole fan, realizing his crooner voice again, crowded around the record stores searching for reissue from Capitol. John McDonough’s article about Cole is instructive to understand why he could have left so many intimate, sexually implicit, love songs on Capitol records. (DownBeat, Sept.,’19) Cole met two key figures who could change his future, Carlos Gastel and Norman Granz, in the early 40s. Will Friedwald writes on the liner note of this set, “In the beginning of Granz’ career, the man most responsible for his success was, without question, Nat Cole.” Early documents of jam session conducted by Granz are included in this boxed set. While Granz being drafted, Cole shook hands with Gastel for his management. Cole signed with Capitol at the end of year 1943, and remained there until his death. Gastel pushed Cole onto a popular singer road. As late as the mid-’40s race protocols in America did not allow the black singer as an agent of romance. They were supposed to sing about work or blues and some dump crap. This is the reason why Cole’s trio repertoire is full of novelty tunes and jingles. Capitol was a new company and had no use for race line, they gave Cole complete promotional support. In transitioning at Capitol from jazz pianist to commercial pop singer, Cole accomplished what no performer of color had done. May be we have lost an incredible talent to become a great jazz pianist, however, history presented us an unforgettable popular singer.

CD Box aus 2009 noch in Originaler Verpackung ( Nagel neu ). das macht FreudeDanke und gerne wieder

Très belle idée cadeaux !!!

Absolutely fantastic

This collection of early trio recordings show what a fine pianist Nat King Cole was, never given wider credit for his talent as a pianist. There are seven discs of joyful jump, blues and swing. The packaging on this set is superb, amongst the best I've seen. The same care has been taken with the recordings themselves, eighty years old and sounding not a bit of it.