Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Nat King Cole, Ultimate Nat King Cole (Capitol/UMe)

CD:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

To celebrate Nat King Cole’s centennial and his legacy of enduring music, Capitol/UMe has partnered with the Nat King Cole Estate for a number of exciting projects.  Among them are two new collections that showcase Cole’s remarkable talents — both available today  Ultimate Nat King Cole arrives on CD and digital, with a 2-LP configuration to follow on June 14.  It features 21 tracks, including all those aforementioned classics, and a new duet version of “The Girl From Ipanema” with Grammy Award winner Gregory Porter, who made waves with his Nat King Cole and Me tribute album last year.  Accompanying the music are new liner notes including an essay penned by James Ritz.  Read more about Mr. Cole’s centennial festivities here and here!  Watch this space for a full review!

Nat King Cole, International Nat King Cole (Capitol/UMe) (uDiscoverMusic)

International Nat King Cole is a 14-track CD collection of non-English versions of classic songs, all recorded in August 1964.  Among them are “L-O-V-E” in Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Italian; “Muetterlein” (“Answer Me, My Love”) in German; and “Autumn Leaves” in French and Japanese.  The limited-edition collection will be available exclusively from the uDiscoverMusic Online Store and will also feature liner notes from James Ritz.  Read the full track listing and more for both Cole titles here!

New Order, Everythings Gone Green [Vinyl] (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Celebrate New Order’s debut album, Movement, with the newly remastered, heavyweight vinyl reissue of the 12″ single, “Everythings Gone Green” backed with “Cries and Whispers” and “Mesh.”

James Brown, Motherlode: Expanded Edition [Vinyl] (Polydor/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Originally released in 1988, Motherlode collected 10 rare and previously unreleased tracks from the Godfather of Soul’s career (11 tracks on the original CD).  Now, the complete, expanded Motherlode album arrives from Polydor/UMe on 2-LP, 180-gram vinyl, including tracks that first appeared on the 2003 CD reissue, like “You’ve Changed,” recorded in Atlanta in April 1969 and an alternate mix of “Bodyheat” from 1976.  The collection features newly updated notes featuring the work of Cliff White, the late music journalist and James Brown expert.  Read more here!

Cassandra Wilson, Glamoured [Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series] (Blue Note) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records, the legendary label that continues to deliver some of the most striking jazz music ever recorded.  To mark the occasion, Joe Harley and Blue Note president Don Was have launched a new initiative called the Tone Poet Audiophile Reissue Series with two new titles arriving today.  Cassandra Wilson’s 2003 Glamoured featured original songs alongside reinterpreted covers of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Muddy Waters, and others.  The new reissue has been mastered from the original master tapes, pressed onto 180-gram audiophile vinyl, and housed in deluxe gatefold packaging.  Mastering is being handled by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio and the vinyl is being manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated.

Sam Rivers, Contours [Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series] (Blue Note) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In this same series comes an all-analog, deluxe reissue of the tenor saxophonist’s 1965 classic in which he fully embraced the avant garde while not completely turning his back on his hard bop fan base.  Kevin Gray has again remastered from the original tapes.

Foreigner, Live at the Rainbow ’78 (Eagle Rock)

Blu-ray:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
DVD:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Featuring the classic Foreigner line-up, this 1978 concert recorded live at the Rainbow Theatre in London captures the band on film on April 27 1978, after their self-titled debut album had spent a year in the U.S. Top 20.  From the opening notes of “Long, Long Way From Home” to the hit singles, “Feels Like The First Time” and “Cold As Ice,” Foreigner served up plenty of classic tracks.  Also part of the set were two tracks from the then-upcoming album, Double Vision.   Forty years later, the show has been restored from the original film reels, remixed and remastered for this release.

Jerry Garcia Band, Electric on the Eel (ATO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This new 6-CD set captures Garcia and co.’s electric performances at French’s Camp on the Eel River in Piercy, California on August 29, 1987; June 10, 1989; and August 10, 1991.  Garcia’s bandmates include John Kahn, Melvin Seals, David Kemper, Jaclyn LaBranch, and Gloria Jones.  The first pressing is promised to come with a limited edition bonus disc limited to 2,000 units.

Various Artists, Jerome Kern Revisited (Kritzerland)

Producer Ben Bagley assembled one of his starriest casts for the tribute album Jerome Kern Revisited, celebrating the great composer (Show Boat, “The Way You Look Tonight”) with Barbara Cook, Bobby Short, Kaye Ballard, Rod McKuen, Nancy Andrews, and Harold Lang among the performers.  Kritzerland’s new edition includes the original Painted Smiles CD bonus tracks, with everything in spruced-up sound.  This limited edition of 500 units is available now for pre-order, with the CD due by the third week of April.  Pre-orders from the label typically arrive a few weeks early.