NAT "KING" COLE - Year by Year - Part 2

Another excellent thread worth checking out:

http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=167294&highlight=nat+cole

This one has pictures, too!

 

I can never possibly thank you enough for those recordings!

 

Jordan, thanks for pointing us to that discussion. I was fascinated to read Steve's explanation of how the 'alternate take' of the 1961 Unforgettable was put together.

 

I had forgotten that Nat played on that, so I added that information to my software listings.

I see that Sy Oliver arranged it. Sweet!

 

Here come some more versions! of Sweet Lorraine.
I have been on a kick lately looking for certain information on the forties recordings. The V-Disc is from the same day as the Capitol. Aren't they the same recording?? I can't tell the difference between them.

Other versions:
1943, with Harry Sweets Edison and Dexter Gordon.
1944, Jazz at the Philharmonic with Les Paul, Johnny Miller, & Lee Young.
1944, MacGregor transcription
1945, Jubilee show from March
1945, Jubilee show from August. This is the one that has a duet of Nat and Johnny Miller (Oscar was in the hospital)

 

In this thread started by Jordan:

http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=167294&highlight=nat+cole

apileocole mentions that the NKC sessionography is up for 1936 through 1964 on his website. And Steve Hoffman says:

Echo that

 

Marc Myers posts this nice photo of Buddy Cole and Hoagy Carmichael next to my email today.



It's in the Sunday Wax Bits part of the daily blog: JAZZWAX

 

Just One of Those Things

Side One

1957
With Billy May



From my early days of liking Nat King Cole, this has always been on my list of his best albums. As Friedwald says about the mood of the album, ...”Cole and May are advising [us] to face the music and dance.”

When Your Lover Has Gone
You know you are in for a lively ride the minute the saxes and orchestra enter with riff like introduction. What an attention grabbing intro. And it isn’t going to be maudlin when “the magic moonlight dies.” I especially like it when Nat sings out in full voice after the orchestral interlude. I also like the turn on the word YOUR on the 2nd repeat of the phrase “when your lover has gone” near the end. It’s a very subtle difference, but it makes it such a repeatable pleasure.

Near the beginning, I have listened over and over to what Nat does with the first use of the word LOVER, and I can’t really describe how he does it. It fascinates me. It is some combination of timing and pronunciation I think.

A Cottage For Sale
I like the way Nat tells the story of this song and gets me to listen to the meaning of the words again. The opening phrases can be a real test of your sound system. What is that? A combination of piccolo and something else -- maybe muted trumpet or alto sax?

Who’s Sorry Now
Nat and Billy make this sound fresh and interesting while swinging it out of sight, with Willie Smith providing the alto sax solo. The intro again has a sound test. Is that piccolo plus vibes plus maybe some other instrument? It is a neat arranging idea and sound combo.

Once In A While
Love what they are able to do this song. Maybe it is just me, but I think Nat gives fantastic meaning to the word TRY in the opening phrases, while Jimmy Rowles is providing a tasty piano lick. I love the Bear version for this song especially the sound of Red Callender whenever he enters on tuba. He makes the tuba sound sophisticated and who else could pull off accompanying Nat’s voice with tuba in a counterpoint melody? I think his playing is classy.

These Foolish Things
A laid back arrangement, the “tinkling piano in the next apartment” is Bill Miller, the opening and closing guitar, John Collins. They build the song deliberately, with some wonderful low accents from Red Callender.

Starting at “First daffodils...” Nat starts bringing this reminiscence to life. My favorite segment is the following bridge:

How strange, how sweet,
To find you still,
These things are dear to me,
They seem to bring you near to me.

The way Nat sings “These things are dear to me...” is wonderful. Now that is what I would call jazz singing. Just one instance of many on this album.

Just For The Fun Of It
I wonder why they decided to remake this song? Was there something they didn’t like about the version of July 10, 1957? The sound may be a little close. The drums and Harry Sweets Edison’s trumpet switch sides on the issued July 31, 1957 version. (Nat and Sweets first recorded together in 1943 on 4 sides that included Dexter Gordon and Red Callender. Apileocole’s website recently brought that session to our attention.) There is what sounds like clarinet-lead reed voicing backing Nat’s vocal in a couple of places. I think it is haunting especially in the issued version. It could be Billy’s reference to his years with Glenn Miller, 1940-42. A very smooth performance of a song that I have never heard anyone else sing.

 

Just for the fun of it

The first time I "heard" the alternate take of this tune was on The Billy May Sessions. This listening followed many years of familiarity with both the mono and stereo Lps. Now, I think it's clear that this song was, in fact, recorded at two separate sessions, but I cannot detect any difference whatsoever in musical performance. Nat's vocal, as best as I can tell, is exactly the same on the master and the "alternate." Anybody hear otherwise?

Dale, thanks for the great review on side 1; I look forward to side 2.

 

Wow. That's a lot of versions. Does anyone have a favorite version? Tough pick on that for me, but I actually like the 39 and 40 versions a lot. They're all great though...

 

More!? Amazing.

Which two or three out of all of them are your favorites?

 

Hmmm. I don't know. I'm confused myself now about all of the different versions. My CDs are a bit of a mess at this point. They usually get that way by the end of the semester, and then once I turn in grades I clean them up and organize them a bit. Maybe it's time to rev up some holiday stocking stuffers of specially selected NKC Cds?

 

Dale: Thanks so much for this outstanding publication quality review of this album. I love being a NKC fan around here.

I confess that it took me a few years to open up to this album in the very early years of this century. It's so hard hitting, I guess it took me a while. But now I love it too.

 

A little thing. Which cover do you prefer for the original Unforgettable album?

I was posting in a thread about gatefold EPs and was struck that I liked the EP rendition of the cover as represented on a current sale item over the recent CD cover on the Collectors Choice. First the EP from 1952 and then the 2007 Collectors Choice.

"50's gatefold sleeve double 7" epNAT KING COLE
UNFORGETTABLE ep
with 8 selections on two 45s
Vintage original issue of this fantastic early.... ep featuring "Unforgettable", "Portrait Of Jennie", "What'll I Do", "Lost April", "Too Young", "Mona Lisa", "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons" & "Red Sails In the Sunset".
ALBUM EBF-357"

 

This is from a 1963 TV show which aired on Christmas day. All I have been able to determine is that the photo of Danny Kaye and Nat King Cole is of them singing Jingle Bells. Surely Nat sang something else that Christmas Day. The wouldn't have hired him for one little duet. Mary Tyler Moore was the other guest star.

 

Blue is my favorite color, but I might like the greenish one in this case. Not sure why though....

 

Love Danny Kaye! Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa! (From the Secret Life of Walter Mitty--great movie.) Thanks for that excellent photo. Holiday mood, here we come...

 

At one time I had written down the program for that evening's episode - at least Cole's part - but seem to have long ago misplaced it. In addition to "Jingle Bells" I do recall at least one other Xmas number (with Kaye and MTM) and, IIRC, "Get me to the Church on Time."

Nat was also scheduled to appear on Kaye's Xmas episode the following year, but was too ill to appear.

 

A recent discussion with apileocole about Every Time I Feel the Spirit prompted me to look into the album a bit, an album which is probably played about as often as Rabmlin' Rose: once or twice a year, at best. Now I'm not sure that I have a new appreciation for the musical merits of the album, but I did come across a few interesting points nonetheless.

I recently came across an article which was written right around the time of the recording session which claimed that the working title of the project was Cole at Peace. Whether or not this would have been better, I'm not sure, but it may have been a better reflection of the recording. I don't doubt that Nat "felt the spirit" but whether the record reflects that is, I think, certainly debatable.

I wonder what some of the other "working titles" for his albums might have been?

It also seems that Nat thought highly of this effort, despite what, at times, feels rather like a ho-hum affair. In the summer of 1959, at his annual engagement at The Hollywood Bowl, backed by 100 voices, he devoted half of the program to the performance of this album. Another article suggested he was to do another. While this didn't happen, it did include a handful of spirituals in his stage act during the last few years of his life.

 

That is interesting and it might have been a better title after all, than Every Time I Feel The Spirit.

Back on page 35 of Part 1 of the thread, Apileocole and Jordan were discussing a 1960 European tour of Nat King Cole, and the Quincy Jones Big Band. (posts 694 & 698)

I thought it might be of interest that one of the original posters for the tour has turned up for sale in Germany for $240 plus $25 for shipping.

"This is a guaranteed authentic German Jazz concert poster for a NAT "KING" COLE concert in May 1960. It measures app. 23 x 33 inches or 60 x 83 cm and it's no shop poster nor a later reproduction. Poster artist is Gunther KIESER.
CONDITION: the poster is rolled and near mint."

 

Just One of Those Things

Side 2

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

First, this was a song for Johnny Hodges, alto sax, called Never No Lament, recorded in Hollywood 1940 by Duke Ellington. To my ears, it was one of Duke's best bands.

Here is the Duke, writer Leonard Feather, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Hodges together in 1951. Dig those hats.


Billy May pays homage to Duke's style with some Ellington influenced riffs and Jimmy Rowles does the same on piano. Martin Williams says "Bob Russell's words are possibly the best ever set to an Ellington melody."

A definitive version. Nat's voice is superb on this. His phrasing doesn't falter anywhere that I hear. I'm not going to pinpoint it here, but other versions that I own have someplace in the song where the phrasing just doesn't work for me.

I hear more of the voice details from Steve Hoffman's LP and that voice is at one of the peaks of Nat's career.

I Understand

This one means a lot to me. When I was a kid I found a stash of old 78 records in the garage. One of them was a record of I Understand, sung by Bob Eberly I think. In turn, my father told of visiting his grandfather and finding shelves full of records that my dad listened to when he was young. Hm, do you think there is a gene for record collecting?

Anyway, Nat's version is so much better. Eberly's is too slow or maybe the arrangement doesn't propel it.

I like what Nat does with the phrase "But if you find our love was really meant to be". And right after that you have, in the intro to the band interlude, the tuba and the flute (or piccolo) going in opposite directions--I'll bet Billy May had a great sense of humor. On the final note from the band, a lot air is moved in the room in a big WHUMP!

Just One of Those Things

This is hot. The arrangement is dense and a showpiece for band. Those musicians had to be talented, agile and swingers to pull this off. While Nat is riding smoothly atop the mayhem below. Charles P. Harris, the bass player, probably got blisters from this.

Years ago, decades, I didn't appreciate the arrangement because an old hi fi system was smearing the sound. Also some of the earlier LPs and CDs just don't do it for me. I believe you need the Bear box or Steve Hoffman's LP to really hear what is happening. Imagine, in 1957, the engineers trying to capture this in mono and stereo. My only wish would be that they could have captured more definition from the bass player. While I'm making wishes, I also wish I could find a quiet (non-crackly) mono LP.

In the middle, Nat and the band are trading choruses. When Nat sings "Just one of those bells that now and then rings,mmmmJust one of those things", I love how he savors that note with the mmmm. Have you ever heard anyone interpret that line with such savory humor?

The Song Is Ended

Timeless, delightful, upbeat, this is a favorite of mine. I want to direct the band, I want to sing along -- that's how it effects me, that is if I am listening to the Steve Hoffman version on the 2004 S & P LP. What a great job of mixing and mastering. The other versions have a lesser effect. To me it illustrates very well that the magic of recorded music can be in the mastering and the mix.

It is hard to believe this was written in 1927. Irving Berlin never sounded so good.

I Should Care

A great song loved by both singers and jazz players. It had 4 hit versions its first year.

* Martha Tilton (1945, with Eddie Miller and His Orchestra, #10)
* Jimmy Dorsey and His orchestra (1945, Teddy Walters, vocal, #13)
* Tommy Dorsey and His orchestra (1945, Bonnie Lou Williams and the Sentimentalists, vocals, #11)
* Frank Sinatra (1945, with Axel Stordahl and His Orchestra, #8)
* Ralph Flanagan and His Orchestra (1952, Harry Prime, vocal, #4)
* Jeff Chandler (1954, with Victor Young and His Orchestra, #21)

I know there are many other wonderful versions out there, but Nat's version is very memorable. I find I can go back to it again and again over the years. There is always something I hadn't focused on before, such as how Nat lowers the volume on the last note.

The Party's Over

The ideal song to end this album, from Broadway, it is dramatic, has great lyrics and a great tune. The song lets Nat build the intensity. The second time Nat sings:
"Now you must wake up
All dreams must end",
it is both dramatic and jazzy.

I like to listen to this album as it was issued. The first song talked about when the magic moonlight dies, the last song tells us they have taken the moon away.

I love the end of the arrangement and the album. Billy May ends this program not with a fadeout, but a huge
POW!

Dale

 

Apileocole, I wondered if you had already run across this Erroll Garner quote. It seemed a natural for your website, with the word choice:

"a pile of ...Cole records..."

Erroll Garner once said: "When I was in California in 1947, I always started the day with a pile of Nat King Cole records on the phonograph."

The other day I found the quote on a 1985 LP of the King Cole Trio on the Pathe Marconi label from France. Great Capitol Masters, #1566251. I hadn't looked at that LP for years. It was in the notes written by Claude Carriere.

 

Autograph

I am not into autographs. It isn't my thing. The pricing has always seemed insane to me. But I like sheet music, and I couldn't pass up a real bargain. I got this for just a few dollar bills.

It is the 1954 music with the signature done in what looks like a fountain pen with a wide nib. The ink didn't go on too well on the semi-gloss color cover, so it is not a "first rate" autograph. I hope it is authentic. I like to think that it could be. If it is not authentic, I am not out very much.

 

Pow is right! thanks for a great essay and analysis for these songs. I will listen to them now with your words floating in my brain.