Complete Recordings, The - Lester Young/Nat 'King' Cole

Advantages: 104 quality songs, informative and well written booklet
Disadvantages: None unless you don't like 40's-style jazz

...facts and anecdotes, a couple of photographs, and a complete discography of the collection. The writing style is very good, with just the right mix of factual information, recounting of life experiences, and just a little humour to stop it from becoming too dry. Intriguing stuff for anyone interested in Cole / the King Cole Trio / the history of jazz music in general. But enough of that, of course you want this collection for the songs. There are plenty of them, too - a grand total of 104 songs spanning approximately a decade. The songs are presented in chronological order, starting with "Sweet Lorraine" on Disc 1 and finishing on Disc 4 with "Orange Coloured Sky". The sound quality is very good, though obviously the age of some of the recordings means they're not perfect. The unique style of Cole's singing makes it very difficult... Read review

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Advantages: Her voice and choice of songs, especially the "duet" with her father
Disadvantages: If you don't like these old songs, you might not enjoy this album, but you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't try

...of them. The introduction to that says: "Since she launched her own Grammy-award winning career in 1975, Natalie Cole admits people have urged her to record an album of Nat King Cole songs. But it wasn't until now that she was prepared to undertake such a project. 'When I was recording', she says, 'I felt tremendous joy and relief. I have kept this music inside of me for so long and now I'm finally releasing it'." Also included in the liner is the usual list of the songs with their lengths, who wrote them and the basics of the arrangements. Interspersed with this are pictures of Natalie as a young girl - some with her performing with her father - with captions explaining them. There's also a large list of credits for all the performers on this disk, and a very detailed special thanks from Natalie herself. It just occurred to me... Read review

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Advantages: That beautiful voice, lovely accompanyment and arrangement of these classic songs
Disadvantages: Ramblin Rose is really nasty

...of classical, easy listening and jazz artists and composers. They cost just £5.99 each and are available either from HMV shops or www.hmv.co.uk. All the CD’s are of a high quality and are not live recordings, unlike so many other ‘bargain’ CD’s. I have several HMV CD’s and I have to say that the Nat King Cole Collection is my favourite. I can not think of any other male singer who can drive me to tears as Nat King Cole can. His voice is pure velvet. Rich, soft, strong (I’m starting to sound like a toilet paper commercial now aren’t I?!) and totally beautiful and moving. This collection of songs covers recordings from the early 40’s right up to the last recordings made before his sad, premature death in 1965. The compilation does concentrate on Nat’s singing talent, rather than revealing... Read review

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