Nathaniel Adams Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born on March 17 1919 in Birmingham, Alabama, to Reverend Edward James Coles Sr. and Perlina Adams Coles; only five of their 13 children survived until adulthood. When Nat was four, the family moved from Montgomery to Chicago, where his father ministered the True Light Baptist Church and his mother directed the choir. So she trained all of her children in music. Nat naturally took to the piano and could play anything from Bach to Rachmaninoff by the time he was a teenager. He manned the organ in his father's church and, while he was a student at Phillip's High School, he organized a jazz band that played local gigs. He also kept the rhythm in a sextet, Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers - organized by his brother Eddie, a bass violinist - which made its recording debut in 1936.

Later that year, Cole joined a revival of the Shuffle Along revue and toured with the company as a pianist until the show closed in Los Angeles. Nat left with his new wife, dancer Nadine Robinson - who had also joined the revue, stranded in California. Nat found jobs as a piano soloist and by the time he was 20. His jazz music was known all over the small nightclubs of L.A. In 1937, he debuted with his famous breathy singing style at the Swanee Inn when a drunken customer begged him to sing "Sweet Lorraine." Another night, club owner Bob Lewis urged Cole to wear a gold paper crown while performing with his newly formed trio, dubbing him Nat "King Cole". After making a recording of "Sweet Lorraine," the "King Cole" Trio began to attract jazz enthusiasts from all over and was soon scoring gigs at the hottest venues in town. They toured the county in 1941 and, upon their return to Los Angeles they started recording for the Capitol Records Company. The trio's first national hit, one of the biggest hits of 1943 - 1944, was "Straighten Up and Fly Right," featuring solo singing by Cole.

In the 1940's, the King Cole Trio was in high demand, ruling the airwaves with hits like "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," "The Christmas Song," and a sensational recording of "Nature Boy," written by Eden Ahbez. At their peak, they substituted for Bing Crosby at the Kraft Music Hall radio show and appeared in jazz concerts at Carnegie Hall. Cole's 1949 recording of "Mona Lisa" crossed over into the pop charts and sold over three million copies, making him the most successful African American recording artist of this time. Later that year, Cole added a bongo drummer to his "trio" and went on his first European tour. By this time, the internationally renowned Cole had sold over 50 million records at home and abroad and Capitol Records had become known as "The house that Nat built."

Although Cole's commercial success as a pop artist was phenomenal, it unfortunately came with the sacrifice of his exemplary and extremely influential talents as a jazz pianist. Before he turned full-time to singing, he had already influenced the likes of Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and Ray Charles with his intricate and innovative piano style and piano/guitar/bass lineup. Cole's 1956 album After Midnight proved that he could still play stimulating jazz, but it failed to influence mainstream listeners, many of whom were not even aware that he played the piano. Although his place among jazz greats remains uncontested, many music aficionados consider his career a victory of commercialism over art.
Cole and his first wife, Robinson, divorced in 1946. In 1948 They had two daughters: Stephanie Natalie Marie, born in 1949 and Carol, actually Mrs. Cole's niece, whom they adopted. In 1959, they adopted a son, Nat Kelly Cole.

Although Cole projected a lively and energetic persona in his performances, those close to him knew he often experienced periods of melancholy, possibly due to his delicate health. He suffered from health problems his entire life and in 1953, after collapsing during a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall, he underwent a serious operation for his stomach ulcers. An avid smoker, Cole succumbed to lung cancer on February 15, 1965, at the age of 47.