Nat King Cole, the jazz pianist who would become one of the most beloved singers of the 20th Century, was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Ala., on March 17, 1919, to Edward and Perlina Coles. When he was four, the family journeyed to Chicago, where his father became a Baptist minister and his mother taught him music on the family’s upright piano. He started out playing organ at his father’s church and studied Bach, but switched to jazz piano as a teenager. It was in those early days playing in Chicago jazz clubs that he acquired the nickname Nat “King” Cole. In the 1930s, he formed a trio, the King Cole Swingers, with what was then a revolutionary mix of guitar, bass and piano. He would become one of the leading jazz pianists of his day, inspiring such artists as Art Tatum and Ray Charles. Because he considered himself a pianist, he only sang to fill the spaces between instrumental numbers at first. Audiences loved his rich baritone and began requesting more vocals from him. One night, a patron asked him to sing a song he didn’t know the words to, so he sang one he did know, “Sweet Lorraine.” The trio got tipped just for his rendition of the song, and soon his voice would become the main attraction. His first vocal hit, “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” based on one of his father’s sermons, sold half a million copies in 1943. Though he would become world-famous, he endured racial attacks and barriers throughout his career. Hotels that hired him to perform refused him lodging. In 1948, when he purchased a home in the all-white Los Angeles neighborhood of Hancock Park, the neighbors mounted a campaign of harassment. A cross was burned on his front lawn. The family’s dog was poisoned. The property-owners association started a petition and told him they did not want undesirables moving in. Cole famously responded, “Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, Ill be the first to complain.” In 1956, he was performing before an all-white audience in Birmingham, Ala., when several white men stormed the stage and assaulted him. Cole was pushed from his piano bench and, with his back injured, was unable to finish the performance. He never played in the South again. In November of that year, he became the first African-American to host his own network variety show, only to see it founder because no national companies would agree to sponsor it. The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC in November 1956, but by December 1957 was off the air. The voice that defined him came at a high price. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, convinced that smoking gave depth to his voice. He was known to smoke Kool menthol cigarettes in quick succession just before a recording to capture the best possible sound. In December 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The next month, January 1965, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. He died despite the surgery on February 15, 1965. He was 45 years old. His daughter, Natalie, would have a notable singing career of her own, and he would live on in such enduring classics as “Mona Lisa,” “When I Fall in Love,” “The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire...)” and, of course, “Unforgettable.” -- Here he is, singing “Unforgettable:” youtube/watch?v=Fy_JRGjc1To -- Heres a link to an excellent 1963 television special of his on the BBC: youtu.be/J1glriB54oE -- The Warmth of Other Suns
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:50:13 +0000
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