Nat King Cole in The Blue Gardenia (1953)

Nat "King" Cole (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965) was a hugely popular American singer and jazz musician. March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. ...

Childhood and Chicago

Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama. The year of his birth has been reported as 1917 and 1915, but according to Daniel Mark Epstein's biography, the 1920 Census reported Nat as an infant. Montgomery is a city located in Montgomery County, Alabama. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ...

Nat's father was a butcher in Montgomery and a deacon in the Baptist church. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois while he was still a child. There, his father became a minister; Nat's mother Perlina was the church organist, and it was she who taught him how to play piano. His first performance, at age 4, was of "Yes, We have no bananas". He learned not only jazz and gospel music, but classical as well, performing, as he said, "from Bach to Rachmaninoff". Baptist churches are part of a Christian movement often regarded as an Evangelical, Protestant denomination. ... The piano Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). ... Gospel music may refer either to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the 1930s or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. ... Classical music is music considered classical, as sophisticated and refined, in a regional tradition. ... For other people named Bach and other meanings of the word, see Bach (disambiguation). ... Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, also Sergey Rachmaninov or Serge Rakhmaninov (Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов), (April 1, 1873 – March 28, 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. ...

The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, which was famous in the late-20s for its nightlife and jazz clubs. Nat would sneak out of the house and hang outside the clubs, listening to artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School. Bronzeville is a neighborhood (located in the Douglas community area) on the South Side of Chicago around the Illinois Institute of Technology, accessible via the Green Line of the Chicago Transit Authority. ... Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Referred to as the Roaring 20s. ... Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 19011 – July 6, 1971) (also known by the nickname Satchmo) was an African American jazz musician. ... Earl Kenneth Hines, better known as Earl Hines or Fatha Hines (28 December 1903 - 22 April 1983) was a prominent jazz pianist. ... Jimmie Noone (sometimes spelled Jimmy Noone) (April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an early jazz clarinetist. ... Walter Henri Dyett (1901–1969) was an American violinist and music educator. ...

Inspired by the playing of Earl "Fatha" Hines, he began his performing career in the mid-1930s while he was still a teenager, and adopted the name Nat Cole (losing the "s" from his last name). His older brother, Eddie Coles, a bassist, soon joined Nat's band and they first recorded in 1936. They had some success as a local band in and around Chicago and recorded for race music labels. Cole also was pianist in a national touring revival of ragtime and Broadway legend Eubie Blaker's review, Shuffle Along. When it suddenly failed in California, Cole decided to remain there. Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Science Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term ecosystem War, peace and politics Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism Rise to... A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... A bassist is a musician who plays a bass guitar or double bass. ... African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. ... This is an article about Ragtime music. ... This article is about the street in New York City. ...

Los Angeles and the King Cole Trio

Nat married Nadine Robinson and moved to Los Angeles where he formed the Nat King Cole Trio. The trio consisted of Nat on piano, Oscar Moore on guitar, and Wesley Prince on bass. The trio played in Los Angeles throughout the late 1930s and recorded many radio transcriptions. This article is about the largest city in California. ... The piano Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). ... The classical guitar typically has nylon strings. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Science Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term ecosystem War, peace and politics Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism Rise to... Radio transmission diagram and electromagnetic waves Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. ...

Cole was considered a leading jazz pianist, appearing, for example, in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. His revolutionary lineup of piano, bass, and guitar in the time of the big bands became a popular configuration for a jazz trio. It was emulated by many musicians, among them Art Tatum, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan, and blues pianists Charles Brown and Ray Charles. He also performed as a pianist on sessions with Lester Young, Red Garland, and Lionel Hampton. Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) was the title of a series of concerts and recordings produced by Norman Granz. ... A big bang, also known as a jazz orchestra, is a large musical ensemble that plays jazz music, especially Swing. ... Art Tatum (October 13, 1909 - November 4, 1956) was a famous jazz pianist known for his virtuosic playing and creative improvisation. ... Ahmad Jamal (born July 2, 1930) is a well-known American Jazz pianist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Samples Download sample of Its the Good Life Discography Ahmads Blues (1951) The Awakening (1970) External links Ahmad Jamal Official Homepage Categories: Musician stubs | Jazz pianists | 1930 births ... Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants and has its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. ... Charles Brown (September 13, 1922 _ January 21, 1999) was an American blues singer and pianist, originally a member of The Blazers. ... Ray Charles at the piano. ... Lester Willis Young, nicknamed Prez (August 27, 1909-March 15, 1959) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. ... William (Red) Garland (1923–1984) was an American jazz pianist who chiefly played hard bop. ... Lionel Hampton (April 20, 1908 - August 31, 2002), was a bandleader, jazz percussionist and vibraphone virtuoso. ...

Cole did not achieve widespread popularity until "Sweet Lorraine" in 1940. Although he sang ballads with the trio, he was shy about his voice. Although he prided himself on his diction, he never considered himself a strong singer. His subdued style, however, contrasted well with the belting approach of most jazz singers.

During World War II, Wesley Prince was drafted and Cole replaced him with Johnny Miller. The King Cole Trio signed with the fledgling Capitol Records in the early 1940s and stayed with the recording company for the rest of his career. By the 1950s, Cole's popularity was so great that the Capitol Records building, on Hollywood and Vine, was sometimes referred to "The House that Nat Built". Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, now part of the EMI Music Group. ... Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Years: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 Events and trends Technology First nuclear bomb First cruise missile, the V1 flying bomb and the first ballistic missile, the... Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. ...

Singing career

His first vocal hit was with "Straighten Up and Fly Right", based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Although hardly a rocker, the song's success proved that an audience for folk-based material existed. It is considered a predecessor to the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence. Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ... There are many candidates for the title of the first Rock and Roll record. ... Bo Diddleys emphasis on rhythm largely influeced popular music, especially that of rock and roll in the 1960s. ...

In a move that was virtually unique at the time, Cole reached out to mainstream audiences with the number one hit "Mona Lisa" in 1950. This began a new phase in his career, which had been primarily as a pop balladeer, though he never totally ignored his roots in jazz. As late as 1956, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight. In 1991, Capitol Records opened eyes with their boxed set of Cole's trio recordings. Events January January 5 - US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the Peoples Republic of China. ... 1956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. ...

Cole was the first African American to have his own radio program. He repeated that success in the late-1950s with the first truly national television show starring an African-American. In both cases, the programs were ultimately cancelled because sponsors shied away from a black artist. Cole fought racism all his life, refusing to perform in segregated venues. In 1956, he was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by members of the White Citizens' Council who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. Despite injuries, Cole completed the show, and vowed never to perform in the South again. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ... Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race, characterized by the races separation from each other. ... Birmingham is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. ... South is one of the four cardinal or compass directions. ...

In 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The property owners association told Cole they didn't want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." Whites is a broad term used to describe people of ethnic European, Middle Eastern, and North African descent, especially those with fair skin. ... Hancock Park is a wealthy neighborhood in west-central Los Angeles, California. ...

He and his second wife, Maria Ellington, were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children, two adopted. His daughter, Natalie Cole, and his younger brother, Freddie Cole are also singers. This article is about the Harlem neighborhood in New York City. ... Adam Clayton Powell (left) with Martin Luther King: both were prominent civil rights leaders. ... Natalie Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer/songwriter. ...

Cole performed in many film shorts, and played W. C. Handy in the film Saint Louis Blues. He also appeared in The Nat King Cole Story and Cat Ballou. W.C. Handy photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an African American blues composer, often known as The Father of the Blues. ... A number of short and feature films have been entitled . ... Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy Western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to avenge her fathers murder, but finds that the man she hires isnt what she expected. ...

Nat King Cole, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer in 1965 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Species N. alata N. bigelovil N. debneyi N. excelsior N. exigua N. glauca N. glutinosa N. kawakamii N. knightiana N. longiflora N. sylvestris N. tabacum Ref: ITIS 30562 as of 2002-08-28 Tobacco () is a broad-leafed plant of the nightshade family, indigenous to North and South America, whose... Lung cancer is a malignant tumour of the lungs. ... Gates of Forest Lawn Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California is the original Forest Lawn. ...

Samples

• Download sample of "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66"

Notable songs

• "Straighten Up and Fly Right"
• "Sweet Lorraine"
• "The Christmas Song", with its opening line "chestnuts roasting on an open fire", written by Mel Torme
• "Nature Boy" written by Eden Ahbez
• "Mona Lisa", his first major crossover hit, used as the theme of the movie Mona Lisa.
• "Lush Life"
• "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup"
• "Answer Me, My Love"
• "(They Tried to Tell Us We're) Too Young"
• "Ramblin' Rose"
• "Unforgettable", later re-recorded as a duet by his daughter Natalie.