Duke Ellington: Cotton Club Stomp 1927-1931

Nat King Cole Trio: Transcriptions, Vol 1, 1938

Naxos Jazz Legends

Michael McClennan

December 1927. The Duke Ellington orchestra is about to begin a historic gig at Harlem's Cotton Club. A review penned by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh would be their first assignment. While reviews of the songs and dance are good, there is only a polite mention of Ellington and his orchestra. Yet, it wouldn't take long for The Duke's men to upstage the singers and dancers.

October 1938. The King Cole Trio is created in Los Angeles and has the house gig at the Century Club. Off-air transcriptions that predate the trio's first commercial recordings give a glimpse into the makings of a jazz revolution.

Naxos Jazz Legends has the lofty goal of creating a library of restored classic jazz recordings. Duke Ellington: Cotton Club Stomp 1927-1931, and Nat King Cole: Transcriptions Vol.1, 1938, are an impressive beginning to this collection. Producer David Lennick has accomplished wonders in the audio restoration. The sound is enhanced and modified, surpassing in leaps and bounds the limited capabilities of 1930's recording techniques. This must be the second best sound ever heard from Ellington's original Cotton Club Orchestra. I'm sure most readers are far too young to have ever experienced the best.

Many of the tracks on the Ellington disc are classics. There's the 1927 Creole Love Call and Black and Tan Fantasie, and 1930's famed Mood Indigo that made Ellington an international star. Interestingly, the orchestration of Mood Indigo was designed to avoid distortion on record rather than to sound good from the bandstand. Three Little Words, also from 1930, features a young Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker as the vocal trio. They filled in for Sonny Greer (for whom the song was written) when he succumbed to stage fright. What would later become the band's theme song, Rockin' in Rhythm, is also included.

The King Cole Trio Transcriptions, Vol 1 - 1938 begins with Mutiny in the Nursery, and includes other unsophisticated titles like Three Blind Mice, Patty Cake, and Jingle Bells. But this is a gentleman's music, and one of jazz's most influential trios, Cole, guitarist Oscar Moore, and bassist Wesley Prince, provide a clinic in pure swing. The key to true swing is not the notes, but the space between the notes. Cole's trio didn't just play together, they were 'silent' together. Like a great boxer, the classic Nat Cole sound emphasizes the quarter note, but is light on its feet. As such, the vocal melodies float beautifully, and always have more than a touch of humour.

It will be interesting to hear what the future holds for the Naxos Jazz Legends series. What old favourites will be revisited? What hidden gems will emerge? One thing is for sure -- true fans of jazz will be listening.