NAT "KING" COLE - Year by Year (part4)

Here's another one from that same appearance.

 

Thank You. I have a lot of listening and reading to do. Some of these threads convinced me to make my first SACD purchase. You guys furnished some great information. My brain was the sponge.

Today I finished listening To "Cool Cole". The trio was so tight. His piano playing is astounding. My grandson who lives with me is 5 years old he is going around everywhere singing (I Call My Papa) Fla-Ga-La-Pa. That was a #1 hit in my house. The whole family loved so many of those songs. A local store has the Moasic NKCT Complete Capitol box. At this point I must save before I spend any more money. Plus I need to listen to every thing I have bought. I like a kid in my own candy store. Nat is such a great re-discovery. I can't get enough.

 

If money is an issue -- as it is for most of us! -- you might consider getting that set on iTunes, where it's priced at $209. Still a lot of money, but a fraction of what the set sells for on CD. The downside is that you won't have the book with the liner notes, which is really necessary for someone trying to navigate their way through 18 discs worth of material. However, I seem to recall that some web site -- the official NKC site, I think -- at one time had the complete track list, with session details, posted on line.

 

I would want the whole box and book. I think good things comes to those that wait. I have looked at the copies on Ebay and Amazon. I wonder how many copies of that box were manufactured? The store that it's in probally won't sell it just yet. What happened to the official NKC web site?

 

Yes, the whole box and book are desirable. Besides you get the full CD sound which you can archive.

I would hope that the 700-900 dollar prices are not the new norm, because I have seen some go thru ebay for much less. I wanted a digital copy of the Mosaic set so that I can eventually put it on a hard drive. Two years ago there were two copies that sold for just below 350, while others were in the 400 to 600 range. I lucked out on one of them.

The CD Mosaic seems to be transferred at a higher level than the LP Mosaic. Maybe it was my playback equipment at the time. Now that I have a different LP system I will have to compare again.

 

The inside cover page of the book says

"This is number XXXX of an edition limited to 10,000 albums." I guess that would be 10,000 total including both the CD and LP editions?? I am not sure.

My numbers are 1338 LP and 1364 CD.

 

I know how much I would enjoy this and no doubt that I will get one in time. There are currently two on ebay and the lower one $700 is the copy I was referring to. The owner told me his bottom line he would except. I can still wait. Didn't know this was on vinyl. Somewhere after ths one I want a BF LOVE Box. I also bought the two NKCT Radio Transcription CD boxes listed above as well. I played CD1 of the RR Transcriptions in the Car today. Great stuff.

 

I paid $600 for my set on Amazon from a guy who was downsizing his home. He was the original owner and kept it in mint condition. Many of the ones I found for a lesser price had discs missing or had some kind of issue. I remember I wanted to pick this up when it was first released, but finances wouldn't allow. Years later, triple the price.

Howlinrock, I have one extra copy of each of the BF box sets that I should be selling within the next few months. I will keep you in mind when I do.

 

You picked up four copies of the Bear Family sets!?

 

A total of four, two each of Stardust and L-O-V-E. One copy of L-O-V-E has three corners of the bottom box blown out. Seems that they packed it that way. Imagine my surprise when I took the cover off. Someone will be getting that at a good price because of the box damage. Other than that, both are in mint condition.

 

The one on eBay didn't sell with 5 declined offers. It will probably get reposted again. I know the store owner. I need to wait a minute anyway before I purchase anymore box sets. I need to sell some stuff that I don't listen too. Please keep me in mind when the time comes, I'll appreciate that.

 

I'm curious about the DVD's that are on the market? Tonight I watched "The Incomparable Nat King Cole" DVD I bought for less than $6 from an Ebay seller in Korea. I'm stunned at the great performances and the quality is really quite good.

I also have "The World of NKC" which I found fascinating. The Nat King Cole Collection with (Unforgettable, Encore, Stardust Memories) Is waiting for me to open it as well. I see there are a few other DVD's out there. Are there anymore you guys would recommend that I should get?

 

I really like "The Snader Telescriptions" DVD on the Jazz Legends label. There are other DVDs with this same material, but they have synch problems or they're from inferior sources. (See cover photo of the Jazz Legends version below.) That's the one you want. It's really good and can usually be had for about $9. Basically, it's a collection of music videos by the King Cole Trio, but there are some that are so Nat-centric that they're almost solo performances (Calypso Blues, Nature Boy, Mona Lisa). Two of the videos are in color and some feature the notorious efforts to "lighten" Nat with heavy white make-up.

You'll also want Image Entertainment's "An Evening With Nat King Cole," a fantastic show he did for BBC TV back in 1963 that basically is like a 45-minute concert. It was shot on videotape that has held up remarkably well and, although I'm not a fan of colorized films, this show was colorized and they did a GREAT job. The first time I watched it I was sort of wondering whether it was a colorized version of something shot in black-and-white, but I eventually decided it looked way too good and was true color. Then, at the very end, I saw the credits for the company that did the colorizing, indicating I was wrong. This DVD is essential. As with the telescriptions disc, multiple versions exist. Make sure you get the version from Image Entertainment called "An Evening With Nat King Cole."

 

That's interesting. My copy of "Stardust" was packed with one crumpled corner. Like yours, it wasn't obvious until I took the lid off. I bought it from CD Wolf and although the damage must have occurred when the set was manufactured, not when it was shipped to me, CD Wolf was kind enough to send me a new, undamaged outer box, at no cost. I didn't even have to send them back the damaged one. I wish they still sold Bear Family sets. CD Wolf had (has?) great prices and unbeatable service.

 

I bought mine through CDUniverse and they wanted me to send it back before they would replace it. I was hesitant because sometimes discs come loose in the mail and get ruined and all the discs were perfect. I decided to call and write Bear Family. I even offered to buy the additional box (only the box itself). No response. Much later on, they did respond when I complained loudly about the annoying clicks in the CDs. Took me a couple months of writing and sending samples until they finally said that my discs were obviously defective as the clicks were not present on their masters. So, they were kind enough to send me another complete set (both boxes) and even offered to send me another disc of my choosing for my troubles (which I declined) - and this is how I came into the additional set. Luckily, both boxes were in perfect shape - and as we all know, the clicks were still there. I wrote the guy back a couple of times to let him know the clicks still existed and I was ignored.

 

I was going to remind everyone that The Nat King Cole Show was being released on iTunes, but I just double-checked and they've all disappeared. ??? I was able to grab the 12 that were available the last time I checked. Not sure if more were released before they were taken down.

Anyone know what happened?

 

I was going to get more of them later this year. I thought stuff stayed on iTunes longer than that.

 

They were supposed to release more through October or so.

 

I did get two of these shows on iTunes and Amazon has some of these shows on DVD-R. Here is one.

http://www.amazon.com/Nat-King-Cole...1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1314388033&sr=1-2

 

Who is this Angels baseball player next to Nat ?
`

 

Lee Thomas

 

Thanks -- my searches hadn't come up with a name.

 

I found another issue of the original I AM IN LOVE from 1953. I only knew of the Single with My Flaming Heart on the flip side. Here is a Capitol EP Hits From Can-Can:



Also for fun, I picked this Decca EP of some of the same songs arranged played by Gordon Jenkins:



`
I will have to get them cleaned up some more and compare to the re-make in the Nat King Cole Story.

 

I have been listening to a lot of NKC. Kind of all over the map. I know I'm a newbie to Nat. In the last few days these CD's has been on my players. "10th Anniversary CCM in my car as I drove home from San Francisco. Great stuff to drive by. "Night Lights" was interesting listen but CD sounded like it had a blanket over the dynamic range. There are some great tracks there. I don't know what to think of the "Lush Life" I listened to the first 4 tracks but It sounded shrill on one of my systems at home. I'll give it another go later. I finally listened to "Just One Of Those Things" (The old Capitol CD) what a great joy. Loved the production I have the AP/SH version coming (And St Louis Blues) from Amazon later this month.

Last night I played a Mono LP of Nat King Cole sings/ George Shearing plays. This LP blew me away. I'm stunned.....What a great sounding piece of vinyl. I have left the "Stardust' box alone for now. I want to play the older CD's and LP's first before I go deep in there. I'm going to be busy for months. What an incredible body of works this man created in his lifetime.

 

That's a poorly mastered CD, no doubt. After I bought the Bear Family set, I compiled a CD-R of all the "Night Light" tracks, using the Bear Family set as my source for all the material. Then I stuck that CD-R in my "Night Lights" jewel case and tossed the original CD.