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Swing Era: Nat King Cole - Soundies and Telescriptions (2004)

Posted By: robi62

Date: 13 Oct 2014 11:28:18

The compilation dvd from the "Swing Era" series, Nat "King" Cole: Soundies & Telescriptions (2004), accumulates twenty-seven soundies, telescriptions, & film clips. There are three clips from Killer Diller (1948) & two from Breakfast in Hollywood (1946), both films preferable in their full context. But the other twenty-two performances are each complete three-minute films. The Snader Telescriptions: Nat "King" Cole (199) is a smaller accumulation (fifty-two minutes vs seventy-four) of eighteen telescriptions, without the earlier soundies.
The soundies are from 1945 & 1946, made to play on video jukeboxes. The telescriptions are from 1951, distributed as "filler" for early television, or in some cases sold for "musical review" compilations. DVD selections of telescriptions & soundies & miscellaneous clips, being public domain material, are generally issued for the "discount market." If they disappear from retailers there will turn up in new packages of the same material, no frills or extras. The telescriptions are authentic live performances. The soundies tended to be made in two stages, performers first of all doing the number for microphones to get the sound recording, then playing it again in front of cameras on a stage, playing as near to the same as possible so that the sound recording would match up to the film.
While this means the soundies not authentic live performances, the arrangements are sometimes unique to the soundies. Although some performers for the soundies merely lip synced pre-existant records, I don't think this was true for the Nat King Cole Trio. Because the trio became popular a bit late to become important to the soundies era (which in the main had ended by 1946), most of these soundies & telescriptions are in fact Snader Telescriptions, thus significant as live performances, usually quite well recorded.
These represent Nat "King" Cole at his peak because the King Cole Trio had been with him a lot of years perfecting a mood & style that whether truly jazzy or merely poppy was clean, streamlined music bass, conga drum or bongos, & guitar that supported Nat's vocals & piano playing with beauty & subtlty.
A couple years after the last of these recordings Nat set off on his own as a "mere" pop singer, having bigger musical arrangements, losing the intimacy & art in favor of a slick commercialism. Some good music did come out of this last period of his career as a commercial balladeer, but plainly Nat's golden period was with the trio. These soundies & transcriptions are an ideal way to see them all together in their full glory. The Nat "King" Cole Trio's Errand Boy for Rhythm (1946) is a jukebox soundie. It's a nice jump-jazz performance reminiscent of Louis Jordan, though Nat's put more jump on the version recorded for the single & soundie is comparativelyh subdued.
Charming lyrics evoke Jordan as much as the arrangement of the melody: "You can always find me down in Smokey Joe's/ That's the place where every gal & gator goes/ If you want variety/ Just step in & call for me/ I'm an errand boy for rhythm."
About halfway through the number, a gorgous gal rushes out & dances in a carhop tutu. She's more amusing than skillful as a dancer but she adds a bit of glamour just by looking so cute. Nat's group was hands-down the best trio of the 1940s. In all his mid to late '40s soundies, his bassist is Johnny Miller, but it will be Joe Comfort on bass in the later Snader telescriptions.
His guitarist for the soundies was Oscar Moore, but it will be Irving Ashby playing just as great guitar rifts in the 1951 Snader transcriptions.
Also in the '40s being a "trio" usually counted Nat himself as one of three. But when bongos & conga drummer Jack Costanzo was added it became Nat plus trio.
Got a Penny Benny (1946) is a pleasant piece of pop jazz about being poor: "Got a penny, Benny? Can't ya guess, I haven't any/ And I've got to, got to, call that solid dame/ Got a penny, Benny? Got to telephone Jenny/ And I just got four cents to my name." It's a lot of fun & awfully catchy. The stage is set up like an intimate cafe for Frim Fram Sauce (1945). The song was written by Redd Evans & Joe Recardel. Although it's got "novelty tune" written all over it, & Nat presents it as a comedy bit, it's nevertheless such a good piece of pop-jazz that it was destined for at least a decade to become a standard with many jazz singers covering it, the most notable a version by Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by Louis Armstrong.
Nat's shown seated alone at a table with four chairs & checkered tablecloth. The seats at the soda fountain are all full, including an amazingly good looking babe who we also saw dancing a bit clutzilly in Errand Boy for Rhythm. Nat's trying to get the waiter's attention, though he means the soda jerk since there's a waitress rather than a waiter on the floor:
"A fella's really got to eat, & a fella should eat right/ Five will get you ten, I'm gonna feed myself right tonight/ I dont' want fishcakes & rye bread/ You heard what I said/ Waiter, please serve my fries/ I want the frim fram sauce with the aussen fay/ With chafafa on the side." The nonsense lyrics are coyly about sex, which Nat's glance at the babe at the soda bar telegraphs, especially when he sings "I'm gonna feed myself right tonight." In the cafe itself he never does get served.
In an unexpectedly witty development, for anyone who noticed Nat's band mates are not present, the camera jump-cuts to the cafe's Panoram jukebox, & it's playing this soundie!
There's Nat, Oscar, & Johnny right there on the jukebox video screen. Nat the restaurant customer does a double-take when he sees himself, & the camera cuts back to the Panoram where Nat on the video screen does a doubletake as though he can see himself in the restaurant.

Tracklist:
01. Route 66 [3:11]
02. Sweet Lorraine [2:59]
03. Little Girl [2:43]
04. Home [3:28]
05. The Trouble With Me Is You [3:11]
06. Calypso Blues [2:56]
07. For Sentimental Reasons [3:26]
08. That's My Girl [1:42]
09. Mona Lisa [2:52]
10. Because of Rain [2:32]
11. Too Young [3:26]
12. This Is My Night to Dream [1:56]
13. Nature Boy [2:50]
14. You Call it Madness [3:32]
15. Got a Penny, Benny? [2:41]
16. Come to Baby Do [2:54]
17. Errand Boy for Rhythm [2:45]
18. Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby [2:44]
19. I'm a Shy Guy [2:45]
20. Who's Been Eating My Porridge [2:35]
21. Frim Fram Sauce [2:46]
22. Oh, Kickeroony [2:09]
23. Now He Tells Me [2:37]
24. Breezy and the Bass [1:38]
25. Solid Potato Salad [:55]
26. It's Better to Be By Yourself [2:27]
27. Always You [2:50]

Features:
- Direct Scene Access
- Interactive Menu