The best gig ever... Those are usually the first words in a long argument between devoted music fans. Our intrepid correspondent Eric Beaumont gets the lowdown on some of Cream City's most (in)famous gigs of the 20th Century from Milwaukeeans who were there. Here's part one of a two-part bonanza!

With that rendition of "If You Can't Smile and Say Yes (Please Don't Cry and Say No)," Nat "King" Cole put a musical full stop to the Second World War. The occasion: a September 1946 engagement with his King Cole Trio at the Circle Room in Milwaukee's Hotel LaSalle (now M. Carpenter Tower, a Marquette University dormitory and office building) on the northeast corner of 11th Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

"Live at the Circle Room," released two years ago on Capitol Jazz, is the only recorded document of the King Cole Trio, one of the great musical aggregations of the modern era, in live performance. Originally broadcast on radio station WEMP (still on the air, still playing the King Cole Trio), the recordings show the King Cole Trio -- also starring guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller -- to be as adroit, fluid and jazzy in a supper club as in the recording studio.

"I'll punch a hole in your nylons" was Cole's update of Timmie Rodgers's original lyric, "Men are scarce as nylons." With rationing over, a weird, slightly dizzy optimism seems to have intoxicated Midwestern America. The atmosphere of these September 1946 shows is enthralling. Listening to the Trio cook with such artistry and exuberance over the clink of dishes, utensils, and glasses, the clatter of conversation and commerce, it sounds like gormandizers, gourmands, and groovers are having fun, even though the horrors of the Second World War were still being discovered.

Master barber (at Ricco's Swingin' Door Barber Shop, 229 E. Michigan St.) and conga/percussion virtuoso John Ricco (well known for his work with the Latin Jazz All Stars, Recycled Future, and many other ensembles) was there.

"It was Second Street between Wisconsin and Michigan, where the Grand Avenue is now. I think the Plankinton Arcade was across the street in those days. The Plankinton Arcade, the Antlers Hotel was there, the Attic was across the street. It was a different Milwaukee. In a manner of speaking, it was a hipper Milwaukee, because we had all kinds of clubs downtown in those days.