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Nat King Cole: 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.
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".
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.
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. 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.
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Los Angeles and the King Cole Trio >>
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