SRI Jazz is proud to be able to offer Nat King Cole's "Early Recordings" including performances by the legendary Nat King Cole Trio.
Nat King Cole had one of the finest singing voices in the history of recorded music. He was one of the best piano players as well as being one of the top entertainers of his time.
His massive body of work (mostly recorded for Capitol Records) has been readily available in various formats for years.
Nat King Cole was one of the truly great pianists, inspired and he was a superb pop ballad singer.
Nat Cole grew up in Chicago and by the age of 12 he was playing organ and singing in church; his three brothers (Eddie, Fred and Isaac) would become jazz musicians. After making his recording debut
with Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers in 1936, he left Chicago to lead the band for
the revival of the revue Shuffle Along, and settled in Los Angeles when the show
ended. Cole struggled a bit, put together a trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and
bassist Wesley Prince and eventually settled in for a long residency in
Hollywood. In the early days (documented on radio transcriptions), most of the
group's repertoire was comprised of instrumentals although the Trio often sang
jivey novelty vocals together.
By the time the Trio had its first
opportunity to record for Decca in December 1940, Nat King Cole had gained
more confidence in his own singing. "Sweet Lorraine" resulted from that session
and the Trio soon became quite popular. In future years Art Tatum, Oscar
Peterson and Ahmad Jamal would all form piano/guitar/bass combos inspired by
Cole's group.
