Nat King Cole box, "His Musical Autobiography," October 2015 from Universal*

Here we go again: this seems to have plenty rare stuff...

http://www.amazon.de/Nat-King-Cole-Autobiography-Ltd-Edt/dp/tracks/B00ZGUI6BE/

 

Interesting! Wonder what that "television special" is that's on one of the DVDs? A lot of the solo (non-trio) rarities on the CDs seem to have been pulled from the two Bear Family releases....

 

Is this a genuine release or another unlicensed crappo job?

 

UMG

 

Apparently from Universal

 

I would have guessed unlicensed, but I see the product description says it is being issued by Universal Music, the owners of Capitol/EMI.

 

I will be interested to hear what sources were used for the rare tracks. The list has Miss Me, the last of Capitol singles never to have appeared on LP or CD in its original recording without added rhythm.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, @shicorp. I had been told several months ago that Universal was planning something big like this full of rare material. Could never get any particulars though.

Disc 10 looks especially choice.

 

It's from a February 1963 appearance on an Australian TV show.

 

Really? I don't see that. Not saying it's not the case, just not sure to what you're referring. Based on the given remaster dates, most/all of the material seems to be sourced from previous Capitol releases, things like The Classic Singles, The World of Nat King Cole, and the recent The Extraordinary, among others. In fact, if the date is correct I'd bet that at least one track uses the posthumous overdubs, which, if unintentional, is just unforgivable in 2015.

 

JT...what did NKC sing on the TV show, I was not aware of this performance.
I am aware that he toured Aus. in 1963, So many vault items are starting to come out.
I wonder if Carole Cole's death means that no one is watching the family business anymore.
I thought a couple of Nat's grandson's were involved. Since this is Universal it is legal
anyway...right ?

 

Don't have the set list in front of me at the moment, but what he sings and plays on this hour show, devoted almost exclusively to him, is similar to what has appeared on other discs from the same period, namely the COAST TO COAST LIVE disc which coupled performances from November 1962 and January 1963.

That is definitely not the case.

 

Since "Little Child" is in the set, somebody seems to be doing their homework there. I guess this means that all of Nat's commercial recordings are now on (official) CDs. It would be a true shame if "Miss Me" would be the overdub version again (it was already wrongly included on "This Is Nat King Cole"). I wonder if there's still enough time to correct this - I mean it's months until this will be released...

 

Based on the Amazon listing, I'm confident they'll get "Miss Me" right. There is no parenthetical release date -- only "single version" -- suggesting that this may be an original transfer, unlike much else on the set.

 

I meant remaster.

 

It's my understanding that a member of this forum, though not any of the Cole regulars in this or the other NKC threads, is involved with this set. Perhaps they'll chime in with some comments.

 

Amazon has an image posted of the forthcoming box set, and I for one am not yet impressed. No indication of how big the booklet is, but hopefully those two photographs -- generic stock photos seen over and over -- are not representative of the rest of the images/artwork.

 

A little more on the box: http://store.universalmusic.com/udi...phy-Unforgettable-10-Vinyl-Single/4SUL04F9000

The 88-page booklet is authored by Richard Havers @rhavers.

 

I'm somehow surprised that Universal still uses this sort of packaging. I had serious issues with it in the past - all box sets I purchased had at least one disk seriously scratched (in one case so badly that I couldn't play the CD). Not good

 

This looks pretty awesome! Anyone else excited about this set?

How rare is the Mobil Limb Show?

 

I think it's looks pretty good too. It also looks to be great value for money



Peace and love✌

 

Looking over the track list for the box (oddly sequenced, in my view), I see that Disc 8 has "Three Little Words" right between "The Girl From Ipanema" and "No Other Heart," all of which were recorded at Cole's final session of December 3, 1964. However, this version is credited to the KING COLE TRIO and clocks in at 2:37, roughly the length that Cole's 1947 instrumental recording ran. The 1964 recording was much shorter, about 2:15. So....

Did they actually goof and use the 1947 trio instrumental (from the King Cole at the Piano album) instead of the 1964 vocal with orchestra recording from the L-O-V-E album? Could that be possible???
http://www.amazon.de/Nat-King-Cole-Autobiography-Ltd-Edt/dp/tracks/B00ZGUI6BE

 

Yikes. I would hope that with a set like this, they wouldn't make that sort of error.

 

I like the looks of the free 10-inch single they're including if you order the new boxed set directly from the Universal Music store...

 

A handful of samples can be heard here: http://www.jazzecho.de/musik/jazz-cds/album/product:307893/nat-king-cole-his-musical-autobiography

Not even delving into SQ, there are certainly some questionable tape choices that have been made on the set. The stereo remakes are used in some cases instead of the mono, a strange decision (if it was conscious) considering it is basically a chronological track listing. I also heard instances of the overdub masters being used, which never ceases to vex me.