Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole is an American singer, pianist and jazz musician from Montgomery, United States, born in 1919 and died in 1965. He begins as a child musician and works with bands from the age of sixteen before forming a jazz trio in 1938. That trio plays Los Angeles nightclubs and is one of the first jazz trios to feature guitar and piano. Over time he becomes better known as a singer and crooner, with increasingly orchestrated arrangements around his voice.

Early career and trio work

Cole grows up in Chicago, where he is exposed to the city’s jazz scene, and he is strongly influenced by pianist Earl Hines. His early group activity includes the Nat King Cole Trio, King Cole’s Swingsters, King Cole Quartet, King Cole Lester Young Red Callender Trio, King Cole Quintet, Nat King Cole Combo, The Hampton Rhythm Boys, The Capitol Jazzmen and the Lester Young-Buddy Rich Trio. His early reputation rests on his piano playing as much as his singing.

Recording success

His first major vocal hit comes in 1944 with Straighten Up and Fly Right, a song based on a black folk tale that his father uses as a sermon theme. The song becomes an important early success and is later viewed as a precursor to the first rock and roll records. Bo Diddley later counts Cole as an influence, noting the way he transforms folk material. From the late 1940s onwards, Cole records more pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, often with string orchestra accompaniment.

Among his best-known recordings are The Christmas Song (1946), Nature Boy (1948), Mona Lisa (1950) and Unforgettable (1951). During the 1950s he continues to score hits with Smile, Pretend, A Blossom Fell and If I May. Many of these pop recordings are made with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle, including his first ten-inch long-play album, Sings for Two in Love, released in 1953. Another major album is Love Is the Thing, arranged by Gordon Jenkins, which reaches number one on the album chart in 1957.

Languages, styles and later albums

Cole also records in Spanish and Portuguese after being inspired by a trip to Havana in 1958. His album Cole Español is followed by A mis amigos in 1959 and More Cole Español in 1962. He records Send for Me as a successful move into rock and roll, although his main style remains ballad-based pop with jazz roots. In 1960, after Nelson Riddle leaves Capitol Records for Reprise, Cole and Riddle end their partnership with the album Wild Is Love, later adapted into the off-Broadway production I’m With You. His later hit singles include Ramblin’ Rose, Dear Lonely Hearts, Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer and That Sunday, That Summer.

His final album, L.O.V.E., is recorded in late 1964 and reaches number four on the Billboard Albums chart after his death. A greatest-hits album goes gold in 1968. His 1957 recording of When I Fall in Love later reaches number one in the UK in 1987. Mosaic Records also issues The Complete Nat King Cole Trio Recordings on Capitol in 1991, a large archive set of his trio work.

Broadcasting, film and public life

Cole is the first African-American to have his own radio programme, and later the first to front a truly national television show. Both are eventually cancelled after sponsors withdraw support for a Black performer. He refuses to perform in segregated venues and speaks publicly against racism throughout his life. In 1956, he is attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by members of the White Citizens’ Council and completes the show despite his injuries, later vowing never to perform in the South again.

He speaks at the Republican National Convention in 1956 and supports John F. Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention in 1960. He also performs at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961 and consults with President Kennedy, and later President Johnson, on civil rights matters. In 1948 he buys a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighbourhood in Los Angeles and responds sharply to opposition from the property owners’ association.

As an actor, Cole appears in short films and plays W. C. Handy in Saint Louis Blues. He also appears in The Nat King Cole Story, China Gate and The Blue Gardenia. Cat Ballou, his final film, is released after his death.

Family and legacy

Cole marries Maria Ellington in Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, with Adam Clayton Powell Jr. officiating. They have five children, including twin girls; daughter Carol Cole and son Kelly Cole are adopted. His daughter Natalie Cole and his younger brother Freddie Cole are also singers. Natalie Cole later creates a duet version of Unforgettable using her own voice with her father’s 1961 recording, and the song and album win several Grammy awards the following year.

Nat King Cole dies of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California, in 1965. His burial takes place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His work spans jazz, swing, pop, R&B, easy listening, Christmas music and related vocal styles, and his recorded catalogue remains closely associated with both his trio and his solo singing career.