Nat King Cole: "Hittin' the Ramp" - early-period set from Resonance, rel. Nov. 1, 2019*

With Natalie and Maria gone, who are Nat's survvivors? Grandkids? Great Grandchildren? Great Great Grandchildren?

 

His twin daughters, Timolin and Casey.

 

Valid questions, @hodgo. Matt can chime in as well if my explanation is found to be lacking.

The decision was made to sequence the discs in such a way that prevented repetition, at least until the final disc, which we conceived as a "bonus" disc even if that isn't an entirely accurate description of Disc 7. For instance, we didn't want to start the entire set off with two takes -- alternate and master -- of 1936's "Honey Hush." Thus, we moved the alternate to Disc 7.

Where things get a little complicated -- or at least aren't altogether straightforward -- is how we chose to deal with songs that appear multiple times, whether done twice as transcriptions or as a transcription and then later a commercial recording. Consider a song like "Sweet Lorraine", which appears three times (not counting the fourth, non-trio, recording with Dexter Gordon). Our formula gave priority to the 1940 Decca recording, thus the song's initial appearance on Disc 4. Despite being recorded as a transcription in 1939, we chose to include that version (and the Decca alternate) on Disc 7. "Gone with the Draft" is another good example of this.

I get that it might not make complete sense to all, and I respect that, but there really wasn't another option that completely satisfied our desire to give Disc 7 some distinction, while also ending the set with "Straighten up and Fly Right", which closely resembles the Capitol version and is a perfect finale, in our view.

Hope that helps a little. Glad you are enjoying the set, programming notwithstanding.

 

Thanks, Jordan. That logic seems very sound to me.

 

I don't recall exactly what the rationale was for the last two AFRS tracks from Disc 6. The only formal date attached to those songs, provided by the AFRS, is November 8, 1943; that date, however, is merely the date of dubbing. Recording is believed to have occurred sometime in the summer of 1943. I suspect that we placed them there because of the November date, despite the fact that the discography in the booklet lists it in chronological order. Just speculation though.

And to go back to the overall sequencing for a moment, recall that we were obtaining source material up to the last possible moment. Had we begun the set with everything in our possession, we may very well have tinkered with the ordering just a bit. For example, I could be convinced of a Disc 7 that consisted of alternate takes + AFRS material, assuming that would be enough to fill out Disc 7 and not disrupt too much the timings on the other discs.

 

There is no doubt that this box is the greatest tribute to Nat King Cole's centenary.

 

I have been looking forward to this since I first heard about it. I ordered the vinyl set as soom as I could (mine is #37!). I'm finally listening to the set today. Wow!

I particularly like hearing Oscar Moore's early acoustic style. It sounds like he's playng a 16 inch gibson L-5 or an Epiphone Deluxe.

 

I'm guessing it's the Epiphone.

 

I guess it's the Epiphone! I'll have to listen for his switch to the larger guitar in '39.

Edit: It's things like this that make this one of the really fun threads on the SHF.

 

The first guitar Moore is pictured with, in 1938, is a 16 inch D'angelico! Sounds great on the records! I have a buddy who might own this particular D'A.

 

Back on the Ramp. LP 3. Love it

 

This seems to be one of the two "active" threads going on Nat right now so I thought I'd just drop this in...

January 14, 2020 is the 60th anniversary of the recording of Nat King Cole Live at the Sands!

 

This set is a real treat! There are so many discoveries, like Oscar Moore's development as a player, that I had no idea about before.

You can hear him play single note solos in a way that he rsrely revisits later on. It's easy to hear why he changed his style. On the early records, the single note solos are easy to hear, because he can walk up to a microphone and play them, but his rhythm playing gets lost in the sauce.

Then, he changes to a larger guitar (the Epiphone) and suddenly he's the rythmic anchor of the group. The single note solos recede, but a new style emerges as he leaves the acoustics and goes electric.

 

Any word on how these sets are selling?

 

Why are the download versions of this set limited to 150 tracks? (eg. on bandcamp.com and others)

 

The tracks licensed from UMe could not be included for download.

 

Any idea if they are handily available in an alternate release (download or not) or do I have to cherry pick from multiple cds/cd sets?

 

Not only are certain tracks missing from the download version (at least the one on Amazon), but it isn't easy to just rip the missing tracks from the cd set and insert them into the autorip from Amazon since the missing tracks are interspersed with the others. If you want the entire set in mp3 form, it's easier just to rip the entire set and ignore Amazon's autorip.

Maybe online databases have the tag information now (I think I submitted missing info to freedb), but ripping the discs myself required a lot of typing on my part.

 

GREAT! I wasn't looking for actual figures but just some good news that it's selling well. Thanks. That IS good news.