Word: nat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...COMPLETE CAPITOL RECORDINGS OF THE NAT KING COLE TRIO (Mosaic...
MUSIC The unforgettable jazz of Nat King Cole...
...obligatory cries of acclamation. None of this "the king lives!" stuff. And no "once and future king" either. They may be true, but they sound a little stiff somehow, something his music never was. So -- taking a cue from the music itself -- let's just salute the memory of Nat King Cole with one bright "flash!," a loud "bam!" and a reverent but resounding "alakazam...
...most important (flash! bam!), the intrepid Mosaic Records has just released The Complete Capitol Recordings of The Nat King Cole Trio: 18 CDs or 27 LPs, with a total of 349 cuts and about 17 hours of music. Great American music comes in lots of styles, but whatever the sound, it doesn't get much greater than this. Any one of the tunes in this collection can swing you off on a cashmere cloud...
Producer Michael Cuscuna tried to include only tunes "where Nat is on piano, the trio style is evident and hopefully there is some jazz content." Even such a flexible standard becomes a little restrictive by the early '50s, < when Cole turned more and more toward often wonderfully arranged orchestrations by Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Pete Rugolo and others. One of the Mosaic set's standout cuts is Cole's benchmark version, arranged by Rugolo, of Billy Strayhorn's great ballad of fantasy, loneliness and longing, Lush Life. There is also Nature Boy -- no getting away from that -- and such toothsome...