Nat King Cole: 1940-1941

They Say...

Review by arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide

Considering how well he improvised at the piano, Nat King Cole's rise to fame was gruelingly gradual. Volume Two in the Classics Nat King Cole chronology contains all of the recordings he made between July 22, 1940 and March 14, 1941. His trio, a sharp little unit containing guitarist Oscar Moore and string bassist Wesley Prince, spent much of the year 1940 holding down a steady gig in the Radio Room, a small club located at 1539 Vine Street in Hollywood. It was there that they polished their act to perfection, ignored by both the public at large and the major record labels. As King Cole's Swingsters, they did manage to cut a small number of records for the Davis & Schwegler transcription service, a sleazy little fly by night outfit that soon went bankrupt, leaving the recordings unreleased and the musicians unpaid. Cole sued and was ultimately granted the princely sum of $7.47 to compensate himself and his group for an entire day's work. These are the circumstances behind the first 12 tracks on this compilation. Cole sings on four of them, Maxene Johnson (who also recorded with Franz Jackson and Count Basie) sings four and the remaining four titles are instrumental. The King Cole Trio started working for Decca on December 6, 1940. "Sweet Lorraine" is the first example on record of Nat King Cole as a fully developed mellifluous crooner; everything he previously recorded in this vein was preliminary. "Gone with the Draft" proves that United States citizens were bracing for participation in global warfare almost exactly one year before the Japanese air force bombed the U.S. military installations in Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. "Honeysuckle Rose" is one of the greatest jazz piano trio recordings of its time. When the Trio returned to the Decca studio three months later they cut four more fine sides, rendering up group vocals on "Babs" and "Scotchin' with the Soda." Everything was in place for this little group to enjoy success, but their progress would not be easy, for Nat Cole's career was rife with complications and challenges.