Nat King Cole
by Mary Kalfatovic
He was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in 1919 in
Montgomery, Alabama. When Cole was 4 years old, his father, Edward,
a Baptist minister, accepted a pastorship of a church in Chicago. The family,
which included Cole's mother, Perlina, his older brother, Edward,
and two sisters, Eddie Mae and Evelyn, moved north. Two younger
brothers, Issac and Lionel (called Freddie), were born later
in Chicago. |
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Perlina Coles, choir director at her husband's church, introduced
her children to music early on and all four of her sons became professional
musicians.
As a small child, Cole could pump out "Yes, We Have
No Bananas" on the piano and liked to stand in front of the radio with
a ruler in his hand, pretending to conduct an orchestra. At age 12, Cole
began taking formal lessons in piano and also began playing the organ in
his father's church. If his keyboard skills weren't needed at church, he
was put into the choir.
While attending Wendell Phillips High School, Cole became
enamored of jazz music. The African American community on Chicago's southside
was a center of jazz action in the 1930s. Cole and his older brother Eddie
went as often as possible to hear jazz and be with jazz musicians. When
admission to a performance could not be afforded, Cole would stand in alleys
listening at the stage door. He was most influenced by the style of pianist
Earl "Fatha" Hines. "It was his driving force that appealed to me ... I
was just a kid and coming up, but I latched onto that new Hines style.
Guess I still show the influence today," Cole told John Tynan of Down Beat
in 1957.
Early Musical Career
As a teenager, Cole organized two musical groups — a
14-piece band called the Rogues of Rhythm, and a quintet called Nat Coles
and his Royal Dukes. He would play with whichever group could get a booking.
In addition to music, athletics played a big role in Cole's adolescence
and his talent on the baseball diamond drew the interest of scouts from
the Negro Leagues. Cole remained a sports fan throughout his life. "The
only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing, and that's because I
don't know the horses personally," Cole told The Saturday Evening Post
in 1954.
At age 16, Cole became the pianist for the Solid Swingers,
a quintet formed by his brother Eddie. Late night engagements made keeping
up with academic work difficult and Cole gradually dropped out of school
before earning a diploma. In 1936, as pianist for the Solid Swingers,
Cole participated on several records for the Decca company's Sepia Series.
These were "race" records aimed at black audiences. Though the Solid Swingers'
recordings did not enjoy much popularity, the fact that a record company
had been interested enough to make them in the first place was a big encouragement
for Cole to pursue a career in music.
In 1937, Cole and his brother Eddie joined a revival
of the revue Shuffle Along. After a six week run in Chicago, the show went
on the road. During the tour, Cole married dancer Nadine Robinson. When
the Shuffle Along company suddenly folded in Long Beach, California, Cole
and Robinson decided to stay on the West Coast. To pay the rent, Cole took
whatever job was available. "It was a tough workout. I must have played
every beer joint from San Diego to Bakersfield," Cole told The Saturday
Evening Post.
Despite having to play on out of tune pianos at third
rate venues, Cole's extraordinary talent was noticed and he was soon a
regular performer at the Century Club, a favorite hangout for Los Angeles
area jazz musicians. "All the musicians dug him. We went there just to
listen to him because nobody was like him. That cat could play! He was
unique," said a musician who saw Cole at the Century Club to biographer
James Haskins.
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"King Cole"
In late 1937 or early 1938, dates differ,
Cole was asked to put together a small group to play at the Sewanee Inn,
a Los Angeles nightclub. Cole got guitarist Oscar Moore, bassist
Wesley Prince, and drummer Lee Young to join the group. When
Young failed to appear on opening night, the group went on as a drummer-less
trio.Cole was still using his real name Coles. Sewanee Inn owner Bob
Lewis nicknamed him King Cole and requested that he wear
a gold paper crown during performances. The crown soon disappeared but
the nickname stuck. The group became known as the King Cole Trio
and its leader became Nat King Cole. |
Developed Enthusiastic Following
The music scene of the late 1930s was dominated by dance
orchestras or "big bands." A trio, especially one without a drummer, was
an oddity. Nonetheless, the King Cole Trio developed an enthusiastic local
following and found almost constant work at Los Angeles nightspots, including
many clubs which had never before hired black performers. The trio recorded
with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and made some recordings of their own
for the "race record" market. In early 1941, the trio went on a
national tour and ended up spending several months in New York City, playing
at top jazz clubs. Though the trio was primarily an instrumental group,
Cole occasionally supplied a vocal line to add variation. The shy Cole
was a reluctant singer who didn't think he had much vocal talent. Even
after becoming one of the most popular singers in the world, his opinion
was unchanged. He told The Saturday Evening Post in 1954 — "My voice
is nothing to be proud of. It runs maybe two octaves in range. I guess
it's the hoarse, breathy noise that some like."
In 1942, soon after the US entered World War II,
the trio's bassist Wesley Prince was drafted into the military. He was
replaced by Johnny Miller. Cole was exempted from the draft. Differing
accounts attribute this to either flat feet or hypertension. The trio settled
into a 48-week run at Los Angeles' 331 Club. In 1943, the trio was
signed by Capitol Records, a fledgling operation founded in the previous
year by well-known lyricists Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva, and record
store owner Glen Wallichs.
The trio's Capitol recording of "Straighten Up and Fly
Right," with Cole on piano and as featured vocalist, became a hit in 1944.
The song appealed to both black and white audiences and crossed the barrier
between jazz and popular music. Cole had composed "Straighten Up and Fly
Right," basing its lyrics on one of his father's sermons, but he had sold
away all rights to the song several years earlier for $50 and earned nothing
extra from the hit recording.
Moved Away from Jazz
The success of the King Cole Trio continued with the
hits "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," and "For Sentimental Reasons." The trio
also performed in movies including The Stork Club, Breakfast in Hollywood,
and See My Lawyer. In 1946 they were hired, along with pianist Eddy
Duchin, as summer replacements for Bing Crosby on the radio program Kraft
Music Hall. "You have no idea how much satisfaction I got from the acceptance
of the trio, because we opened the way for countless other small groups,
units that before were strictly for cocktail lounges," Cole told Down Beat
in 1957. Cole's career took a major step away from jazz when the
trio recorded Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song." A hit in
the winter of 1946-1947, it was the trio's first recording with
a string section accompaniment and was the first recording to emphasize
Cole as a singer rather than a singing pianist leading a trio.
Cole's move towards being a singer of popular music was
viewed by many jazz purists as an artistic sellout. This shift to the mainstream
has been attributed to the influence of Maria Ellington, an intelligent
and sophisticated young singer whom Cole met in 1946. "Maria saw
that Nat had a limited future as a jazz pianist. He couldn't just sit there
and sing and become a big hit. He had to stand up and sing with strings,"
said Duke Niles, a song-plugger who knew Cole, to biographer Leslie Gourse.
Many people around Cole, including fellow trio members Moore and Miller,
thought the well-educated Ellington was calculating, domineering, and snobbish.
Others say that Cole enjoyed many kinds of music (he was also an excellent
classical pianist) and felt hindered by the confines of jazz. He very much
wanted to be a big mainstream star and Ellington's guidance merely assisted
him in achieving that goal. After obtaining a divorce from Nadine Robinson,
Cole married Ellington at a lavish ceremony conducted by Reverend Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr. at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1948. Cole
and Ellington had three daughters and adopted a son and another daughter.
Became Showcased Singer
Having added string accompaniment to his recording of
"The Christmas Song," Cole took another step away from jazz
with "Nature Boy," which he sang with the backing of a full orchestra.
The exotic-sounding ballad was a major hit of 1948. In 1950,
another somewhat offbeat ballad, "Mona Lisa," soared to the top
of the charts and stayed there for weeks. Gradually Cole began singing
"stand up" rather than sitting in front of a piano. The King Cole Trio
devolved into window dressing for Cole's solo performances and was finally
disbanded in 1955. Success continued with "Unforgettable,"
"Too Young," "Answer Me, My Love," and "Darling, Je Vous
Aime Beaucoup."
Cole's mellow delivery was in opposition to the belting
offered by other popular singers of the early 1950s such as Eddie Fisher,
Johnny Ray, and the young Tony Bennett. His careful enunciation of a lyric
enabled him to convey a song with depth and meaning and made his rather
limited vocal range seem irrelevant. "Mine is a casual approach to a song;
I lean heavily on the lyrics. By that I mean I try to tell a story with
the melody as background," Cole told Down Beat in 1954.
Not Immune to Racial Prejudice
In 1956, Cole was given his own television show
on NBC-TV. Despite good ratings, the program failed to find a sponsor and
left the air after a year. Cole's being African American was seen as the
primary cause for the lack of advertising interest. Sponsoring a program
that drew a large, if by no means exclusively, black audience was seen
as a waste of money by advertisers. Racial incidents cropped up from time
to time during Cole's starring career.
When he and his wife bought a house in the exclusive
Hancock Park section of Los Angeles in 1949, neighbors formed an
association to prevent them from moving in. In 1956, at the height
of his fame, Cole was attacked by a group of white men while performing
in Birmingham, Alabama. Cole was sometimes criticized by other blacks for
not taking a more aggressive stand against unfair treatment of racial minorities.
He did not refuse to perform before segregated audiences, believing that
goodwill and an exhibition of his talent were more effective than formal
protests in combating racism.
The advent of rock and roll, the revitalized career of
Frank
Sinatra (to whom Cole was often compared), and competition from younger
black "crooners" such as Johnny Mathis and Harry Belafonte,
caused Cole's popularity to fade slightly in the later 1950s. To boost
his sagging career, Cole acted in a several films, and organized a touring
concert show called "Sights and Sounds," in which he appeared with a group
of young singers and dancers called the Merry Young Souls. In the early
1960s, he returned to the top ten with the hits "Ramblin' Rose," and "Those
Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer." Some critics remarked that these vacuous,
though catchy, songs were not up to the quality of his earlier hits.
Throughout his adult life, Cole was a heavy smoker who
was rarely seen without a cigarette in his hand. After an operation for
stomach ulcers in 1953, he was advised to stop smoking but did not
do so. Keeping up with a hectic schedule of recording and live appearances,
he ignored signs of ill health. In late 1964 he was diagnosed with an advanced
case of lung cancer. After unsuccessful medical treatments, he died on
February
15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.
Cole's recordings, both his jazz material and his mainstream
work, have been discovered by new generations of fans. In 1991,
Cole made a strong resurgence when his daughter Natalie blended her voice
with his on a chart-topping new rendition of "Unforgettable." Also in 1991,
the Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio were released
to the delight of jazz fans. Listening to the trio's complete recordings
brought new insight into Cole's career. Jay Cocks of Time wrote of Cole,
"He wasn't corrupted by the mainstream. He used jazz to enrich and renew
it, and left behind a lasting legacy. Very like a king."
Source: Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 17.
T i m e l i n e
1919 The year most people say Nat was born.
1931 By the age of 12 Nat was an accomplished pianist.
1934 Nat formed his first jazz band in high school.
1936 Married his first wife, Nadine Robinson.
1937 By this year, Nat said he had played piano in what he later remembered
as every beer joint in Los Angeles.
1939 Formed the King Cole Trio.
1946 Met his second wife - Maria. / Started his weekly radio
show.
1948 "Nature Boy" becomes a big hit. / Married Maria.
1950 Natalie Cole was born.
1951 Now a famous vocalist and known as "The man with the velvet voice".
1956 Nat started his own TV show.
1959 Nat and Maria adopted their son - Kelly.
1961 The twins were born - Casey and Timolin.
1965 Nat died of lung cancer on February 15. |