His full name is Nathaniel Adams Cole.
Born: March 17, 1917 in Montgomery, Alabama (AL)
Died: February 15, 1965 in Santa Monica, California
Genre: jazz
Styles: vocal jazz, blues, ballads, swing
Instruments: vocals, piano
Nat King Cole has long been a favorite singer and pianist of countless pop music lovers, connoisseurs and jazz lovers. Listeners always liked his special soulful manner of performance, as if he sang his charming baritone for you personally and knew how to tell a love story as if it had never happened, anywhere and with no one but you. He created a lyrical image that was exceptionally natural and at the same time romantic. Of all the English-speaking vocalists, he stood out for unsurpassed diction and phrasing and for his songs you can safely learn English.
Nat King Cole was born in Montgomery, Alabama and soon ended up in Chicago, where his family moved. His father, the Reverend Edward J. Coles, was a priest in the Baptist Church, in which his mother Perlin sang. Nat had an older brother Eddie and a sister Eveleen, and younger brothers Isaac and Fred were born in Chicago. They all sang and played the piano and had very similar voices. The family had a happy atmosphere, never had any quarrels and everyone loved each other, especially Nat.
His early idol was the pianist Earl Hines, whose records defined and shaped Nat's musical taste, while his father, with whom he often sang Negro spiritual chants (spirichuel and gospel), had a spiritual influence. Nat began playing the piano at the age of four, and his first orchestra consisted of a dozen classmates.
Having started working professionally as a pianist in Eddie's brother's sextet since the age of 19, Nat shortened his last name (becoming simply Cole without a "c"). In 1936, Nat went on a touring trip with Noble Sissle's revue, which collapsed a year later and he was left stranded in Los Angeles. There, Nat married dancer Nadine Robinson of the show and began playing at local clubs for $5 a night. At this time he tried to create his own quartet, but the drummer did not come to the first performance, so there was a trio of double bass, guitar and piano. It was 1937, the era of large orchestras, and managers doubted that such a small line-up would be of interest to visitors, but Nat's trio proved attractive enough to listen.
Legend has it that Cole sang by accident. Allegedly, some drunken visitor at one of the clubs where Nat was playing asked him to sing the song "Sweet Lorraine". The musician refused and then the owner of the institution intervened: "You know this song, sing it so that he falls behind." Of course, Cole knew and loved this clarinetist Jimmy Noon theme, and he sang it. His singing made such an impression that the musician received the nickname "King" and from 1940, when it happened, the "Nat King Cole Trio" quickly went uphill.
In 1948, Nat's trio signed a contract with then-composer Johnny Mercer's Capitol Records, where they almost immediately recorded their first great hit, Straighten Up And Flay Right, written by Nat himself. As a soloist and pianist, he became increasingly successful. As a pianist, Cole was highly regarded among jazz musicians and subsequently, while working in New York, participated in recordings with such famous masters as Lester Young, Lionel Hampton and Budi Rich.
While in New York, Nat met his future second wife, Maria Hawkins, originally from Boston, whose stage name was Ellington, as she sang in the Duke Orchestra.
In the 50s, Nat became one of the most popular artists in the world. It was the time of his greatest success: crowds of fans, full halls everywhere, touring in Australia and South America, where he sang in Spanish and performed in huge stadiums. For 15 years, he recorded more than 60 long-playing records and starred in a dozen films.
Back in the early 30s, Nat underwent surgery for a stomach ulcer, part of which was removed. Unfortunately, he smoked a lot, sometimes even two cigarettes at once and several packs a day. In 1964, he was banned from smoking, but could not stop smoking. In December of this year, he had his left lung removed due to cancer, but this did not stop the process and on February 15, 1965, he died in Santa Monica Hospital.
Nat King Cole is one of the few artists whose recordings are still popular.