Nat King Cole
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Born

  • March 17, 191?
  • Montgomery, AL

Died

  • February 15, 1965
  • Santa Monica, CA

Real Name

  • Nathaniel Adams Cole

Marriages / Children

  • Nadine Robinson (1936-48)
  • Maria Ellington (1948-65)
  • Natalie (b. 1950)
  • Carol (a. 195?)
  • Nat (a. 1959)
  • Timolin (b. 1961)
  • Casey (b. 1961)

Nat King Cole

Though best remembered for his popular work in the 1950s and 1960s, Nat King Cole was also an influential jazz pianist whose innovative trio impressed all who heard it in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Cole was also an activist for racial equality. He often refused to play at segregated venues unless they changed their rules, and when his move into a wealthy section of Los Angeles sparked protests from residents about ''undesirables'' in the neighborhood he wrote a letter saying that he was against undesirables also and that he would be the first to let his neighbors know if he saw any.

Cole's exact year of birth is unknown. He himself used three different dates: 1915, 1916, and 1919. The latter is most often accepted as correct. The son of a preacher, Cole's mother taught him to play piano at an early age. His family originated from Alabama but moved to Chicago when he was a child. Three of his brothers became jazz musicians, and he became part of brother Eddie's trio while still in high school. The band lacked a drummer, using Cole to keep rhythm on his piano.

In 1936 Cole moved to Los Angeles and kept busy working in local clubs and bars. He formed his own trio in 1937 with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince. Like his brother's group Cole's threesome didn't feature a drum kit. Their innovate technique and seemingly magical improvisational skills quickly made them popular among the jazz crowd. In 1940 they made their first recordings for Decca, but it wasn't until they signed with Capitol in 1943 that they gained national prominence. Their first session at the new label produced the hit ''Straighten Up and Fly Right,'' a song Cole based on a sermon by his father and a traditional black folktale. The trio produced several more hits over the next few years, including ''It's Only a Paper Moon'' in 1945 and ''(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66'' the following year.

In 1946 Cole began to move away from jazz and into the world of popular music, performing more ballads and working with full orchestras. His smooth, velvety voice lent itself perfectly to this type of material, and the general public responded in a positive manner. Number such as ''The Christmas Song'' in 1947 and ''Mona Lisa'' in 1949 sold well, and Cole soon found himself a major celebrity and probably the most accepted black performer among white audiences. He became the first African-American artist to be featured on his own radio program in the late 1940s. He also was the first black to host his own television show.

The Nat King Cole Show ran on NBC from 1956 to 1957. Though it did well in the ratings no national advertisers were willing to take the chance on sponsoring it for fear that white Southern audiences would boycott their products. NBC carried the show on a sustaining basis, meaning they absorbed the costs, and many top performers, such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Harry Belafonte, appeared either at a reduced fee or for none at all. NBC executives believed in the show and were willing to carry it into a second season, but Cole decided to bow out gracefully.

Cole had another brush with overt racism in 1956 when he returned home to Alabama. While performing at a concert in Montgomery he was attacked on stage by a white supremacist group called the White Citizens Council. The incident left him with an injured back. Though he finished his performance he refused to ever visit the American South again.

The 1950s and 1960s found Cole working with many top orchestras, such as those of Billy May and Nelson Riddle. He scored had the biggest hit of his career in 1962 with ''Ramblin' Rose.'' Unfortunately Cole's life was cut short in 1965 when he died from lung cancer. He still remains a popular figure today. In the early 1990s his daughter, vocalist Natalie Cole, recorded an album of her father's hits. The Grammy-winning track ''Unforgettable'' featured a dubbed duet with her father.