Customer Reviews

Best of (Instrumental / Vocal Classics)

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This 3-CD set is the best tracks from the 18-CD box set: "Complete Capitol Recordings Of The Nat King Cole Trio", which is no longer in print (well worth finding if you can track one down). It's tough to boil 18+ hours worth of material down to only 3 CDs, but they do a good job here! Tracks like "Bop-Kick", "You're The Cream In My Coffee", "No Moon At All", "Ooh Kickaroonie", "Meet Me At No Particular Place", "Dream A Little Dream", plus all the well-known tracks like "Route 66" and "Straighten Up & Fly Right" make this a solid well-rounded package of the best of the trio material! Terrific ensemble playing by everyone, and Oscar Moore plays some great guitar licks too! If you like Nat King Cole, this box is a great addition to any CD collection!

I bought this set to hear Cole's vocals with the trio from 1942 to 1950 on two of the three CD's. I wasn't disappointed. What I didn't expect was to be absolutely bowled over by the third CD - the purely instrumental tracks. I knew what a terrific jazz pianist Cole was, but was unprepared for the way Oscar Moore's guitar work comes to the forefront in these "instrumental only" cuts. The chemistry between Moore and Cole is musical virtuosity of the very first order. They seem to be in each others heads and souls. Johnny Miller on bass is no slouch and is indispensable. But it's Oscar and Nat's pyrotechnic show. I'd pay the price of this 3-CD set just for the instrumental CD. By the time I got to the vocal CD's, the voice (NKC lover that I am, this is heresy) almost got in the way of listening to the trio.

these song I always hear echoing in my ears, body and soul for they are unforgetable. make one wants to listen to them times and times again, anyplace anytime. Unforgetably top quality.

I'm not going to beat a dead horse on the quality of this music. Anyone who has made it this far probably knows how amazing the Nat Cole Trio was. So, i'm just going to give a review of this particular box set.

This box set actually contains three CDs which were originally individual releases by Capitol/Blue Note records. (You can still buy them individually, too). This box set is EXACTLY the same as the individual releases, except the box set has a flimsy cardboard outer slipcase that the 3 plastic CD cases slide into.

The sound quality on these discs is the best i've heard of these recordings. The remastering that has been done on these is really top-notch, and can't be surpassed by any of the bootlegs that are sold here on Amazon.

The three discs included are:
Best of the Nat King Cole Trio: Vocal Classics (1942-1946)
Best of the Nat King Cole Trio: Vocal Classics (1947-1950)
Best of the Nat King Cole Trio: Instrumental Classics