Nat King Cole in The Blue Gardenia (1953)
Background information
Birth name Nathaniel Adams Coles
Born March 17, 1919, Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Died February 15, 1965
Genre(s) Jazz
Years active 1930s-1965
Label(s) Capitol
Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole (March 17, 1919
?– February 15, 1965) was a popular American singer, songwriter, and
jazz pianist.
Childhood and Chicago
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama. His birth date, according
to the World Almanac, was on St. Patrick's Day in 1919. Other sources had
his birth date in 1917. His father was a butcher 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.
Nat learned to play the organ from his mother until the age of 12, when he
began formal lessons. His first performance, at age four, was of "Yes,
We Have No Bananas." He learned not only jazz and gospel music, but European
classical music as well, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian
Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff."
The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, which was famous in the 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.
