Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was a musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
Read more about Nat King Cole: Childhood and Chicago, Los Angeles and The King Cole Trio, Early Singing Career, Making Television History, Racism, 1950s and Beyond, Death and Posthumous Achievements, Personal Life, Legacy, Politics, Notable TV Appearances (other Than His Own Show)
Famous quotes containing the words nat, king and/or cole:
“nat every wight he sholde go selle
Al that he hadde and yive it to the poore,
And in swich wise folwe him and his fore:
He spak to hem that wolde live parfitly—
And lordinges, by youre leve, that am nat I.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“But the lightning which explodes and fashions planets, maker of planets and suns, is in him. On one side elemental order, sandstone and granite, rock-ledges, peat-bog, forest, sea and shore; and on the other part, thought, the spirit which composes and decomposes nature,—here they are, side by side, god and devil, mind and matter, king and conspirator, belt and spasm, riding peacefully together in the eye and brain of every man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““Orders to shoot on sight.” I thought he said the bloke was invisible!”
—Lester Cole (1904–1985)