Nat King Cole Biography

Nat "King" Cole (March 17, 1917 – February 15, 1965) was a popular American singer and jazz musician.
Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 1917.

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. She was the only piano teacher he ever had. 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".
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The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, which was famous in the late 1920s for its nightlife and jazz clubs. Nat would sneak out of the house and hang outside the clubs, listening to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School.

Inspired by the playing of Fatha Hines, Cole 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 under Eddie's name. They were also regular performers at clubs. In fact, Nat got his nickname "King" performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably reinforced by the otherwise-unrelated nursery rhyme about "Old King Cole". Cole also was pianist in a national touring revival of ragtime and Broadway legend Eubie Blake's review, Shuffle Along. When it suddenly failed in Long Beach, California, Cole decided to remain there.

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NAT KING COLE BIOGRAPHY