This excellent box set covers Nat's career from the beginning through about 1954. The sound is extremely good though there is noticeable background static on some of the older tracks. Only a very few tracks contain enough noise to be quite noticeable. Rather than restricting the content to his singing career, this set also includes Nat as a jazz pianist, as an accompanying pianist and as part of the Nat King Cole Trio which preceeded his latest career as a solo singer.

The Jazz Club series is an attractive addition to the Verve catalogue. With it's modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the Jazz Club is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music.
For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late '40s to the mid-'60s, he was a massively successful pop singer who ranked with such contemporaries as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He shared with those peers a career that encompassed hit records, international touring, radio and television shows, and appearances in films…

The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 collects more pop and rock holiday tunes, this time venturing further into the '70s and '80s with songs like Paul McCartney & Wings' "Wonderful Christmastime," Hall & Oates' "Jingle Bell Rock," and Barry Manilow's "It's Just Another New Year's Eve." The collection still features traditional pop chestnuts, including Dean Martin's "A Marshmallow World," Johnny Mathis' "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)," and Andy Williams' "Sleigh Ride," but this volume's overall feel is more contemporary than classic. Other highlights include Manhattan Transfer's "A Christmas Love Song," the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," the Tokens' "Little Drummer Boy," and the Jackson 5's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." If The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 isn't necessarily the most coherent volume in the series, it's certainly one of the most interesting.

This double CD finds Cole revisiting his earlier hits with new versions. The 36 selections (+ 2 Bonus track) mostly focus on his pop successes of the 1950s, although there are a few wistful looks back at his trio days. Not as essential as the original renditions of these popular recordings, the remakes nevertheless find Cole in peak form and comprise a highly enjoyable retrospective of his vocal career.

This is the third and final collection to feature the team of Nat King Cole and Gordon Jenkins (arranger). Their earlier collaborations yielded the uniformly superior chart-topper Love Is the Thing (1957) and follow-up The Very Thought of You (1958). As the moniker suggests, there is a perceptible poignancy and longing weaved throughout Jenkins' arrangements. The opener "Where Did Everyone Go?" possesses a solitude accentuated by responsive instrumentation that supports, yet never intrudes. Cole's practically conversational delivery of pop standards - such as Irving Berlin's "Say It Isn't So" or Johnny Mercer's "When the World Was Young" - become musical soliloquies with the score as a sonic subtext…

Nat King Cole's collaborations with Gordon Jenkins rank among the finest from either artist or arranger. Cole's first stereophonic long player, 1957's Love Is the Thing remains the epitome of the pair's undeniable compatibility, and it topped the album charts for eight weeks. The opener "When I Fall in Love" is considered by many to be nothing short of definitive; the restrained orchestration perfectly adapts to the singer's verdant vocals. Similarly, "Stardust" sparkles as a flawless musical alliance is formed with Cole's warm and inviting narrative weaving over Jenkins' intimate score. Simply stated, both songs are unmitigated masterworks - and we're only two cuts into the dozen-song LP…

Lester Young's significance in jazz is not hard to gauge. His playing influenced almost every saxophonist that came after him. On this release, we hear Young teamed up with two other jazz legends, drummer Buddy Rich and Nat "King" Cole on piano. Following 10 tracks by this unique trio, we are treated to four additional tunes as performed by a sextet led by Young. The trio portion of this album is especially lush and intriguing, featuring wonderful renditions of Young's original, "Back to the Land," Gershwin's "The Man I Love," and a duet version of the gorgeous ballad, "Peg O' My Heart" (Rich had gone out to get something to eat). Cole's intimate piano style wonderfully complements Young's light, airy tone and unorthodox phrasing, and Rich, known for a flashy approach, plays quite sensitively here, using brushes on most tunes…

In the days when recording artists did not write their own material, it was not unusual for them to record more material than actually fit into record companies' release schedules. As this album makes abundantly clear, that was the case with Nat "King" Cole. Between December 20, 1955, and January 21, 1955, Cole held a series of recording sessions with arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle. Cole was near the peak of his commercial appeal, but this was also a transitional period in the record business, with rock & roll coming in and claiming a big chunk of the pop singles charts. Though a Capitol Records press release refers to this material as "an unissued studio album," it's more likely that the recording dates were intended as singles sessions rather than constituting an album project…

Sweet and nostalgic Christmas album with two golden voices that are not with us any more. Nat King Cole and Dean Martin take turns and sing 22 xmas classics. Listen to O Tannenbaum, Adeste Fideles, Silent Night with Nat, Let it snow, Rudolph the red nose reindeer, White Christmas with Dean and feel like a little child again. Not much need to be said. Just a small masterpiece.

Just One of Those Things is a theme album comparable to one of Frank Sinatra's uptempo swing albums of the same period (Come Fly with Me, etc.), and employs the same arranger/conductor, Billy May. Nat King Cole is a bit less effective than Sinatra at uptempo material; he tends to undersing these sprightly standards, and May saves his dramatic horn charts and percussion shots for moments when Cole is away from the microphone. Even so, by the fifth track, "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You," May has retreated to ballad time, and though his embellishments threaten to break out behind the singer, Cole gives an assured, unhurried performance…

Nat "King" Cole's 16 trio recordings for Decca have been reissued many times (including on this CD), and rightfully so. Cole was already one of the top swing pianists by 1940, his vocal style (best displayed on his first hit "Sweet Lorraine") was quite recognizable, and his trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince had a memorable sound. Cole's Decca records (his first for a major label) were a breakthrough for Nat, although his Capitol recordings (which started in 1943) really paved the way toward major success. In addition to "Sweet Lorraine," highlights of this fine CD include "Honeysuckle Rose," "I Like to Riff," and "Hit That Jive, Jack" (which has the Trio's most famous group vocal).

This fine complement to Capitol's earlier collection of Nat "King" Cole Trio vocals (1942-1946) delivers another generous selection of the singer's prime early work. And while it's not as packed with hits as the prior disc is ("Route 66," "Sweet Lorraine," "Straighten Up and Fly Right"), the second volume still contains a nonstop array of Cole's near-perfect singing and tasty piano work. Along with smashes like "Too Marvelous for Words," the collection takes in the usual Cole mix of glowing ballads ("Tis Autumn"), playful novelties ("Ooh Kickeroonie"), and svelte swingers ("When I Take My Sugar to Tea")…