Nat "King" Cole

7CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
10LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The career of Nat "King" Cole has been exceedingly well-represented in the CD era, whether via numerous, expanded original album reissues or the hefty box sets released by the Bear Family and Mosaic labels.  But one period of King Cole's career has been rather overlooked: the recordings he made prior to signing with Capitol Records, the label with which he would spend more than two decades.  Now, Resonance Records is addressing that situation with a remarkable, comprehensive new box set that ranks as the jazz label's most ambitious project yet.  Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) is a 7-CD or 10-LP box set exploring that all-but-unknown period of the artist's career with previously unreleased and new-to-commercial-release rarities and tracks culled from transcription discs and private collectors' sources.