Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

One of six children Nathanial Adams Coles was born in Montgomery Alabama on March 17th 1919. In the early 1920's he moved to Chicago when his father became Pastor of the True Light Baptist Church. Sunday services at the church gave all six of the Coles children the opportunity to perform; taking turns to play the organ for the congregation. Until he was twelve Nat played by ear but he began taking formal lessons because his mother Perlina encouraged him to play the classical music that she enjoyed.

Sadly for Perlina, Nat was more influenced by the great jazz music of the time, Chigago was home to many jazz greats and one of Nat's biggest influences was the legendry Earl Hines. Determined to be a jazz musician he formed a band while still in his mid teens, his mother now accepted the inevitable and made matching shirts for the band members. Valuable experience was gained performing at school dances; often the only payment was a hamburger.

In 1936 Nat went on tour with a black musical revue called "Shuffle Along" he had just graduated from High School. He became romantically involved with a dancer named Nadine Robinson and they married in 1937.The show struggled along but eventually succumbed to financial woes and the young couple found themselves in Los Angeles. Nat started playing in clubs and bars and changed his name to Nat King Cole, King had been his nickname for many years and he simply dropped the S from Coles.

With guitarist Oscar Moore and bass player Wesley Price Nat formed a trio and continued playing instrumentals in small venues. By chance they discovered that Nat had a superb singing voice and vocals were added to their repertoire. They recorded their first song as the "King Cole Swingers" it was titled "Straighten Up and Fly Right"

Hits began to pile up among them the memorable 1946 hit "Nature Boy", but it was the 1950 release "Mona Lisa" which made Nat world famous selling more than three million copies. His success continued through the 50's and into the early 60's with many fans of his singing never knowing he was also a talented jazz pianist. He also hosted his own 15 minute television show in the mid 50's but it's run was brief as sponsors of the time were reluctant to be connected to a black man. This was a lasting disappointment to Nat who refused to ever make another television show.

While the small screen didn't interest Nat he did appear in several movies "The Blue Gardenia", "Saint Louis Blues" and "Cat Balou". Sadly his life wasn't a long one Nat died at the age of 47 in Santa Monica California of lung cancer.