Nat King Cole - Hardcover

Epstein, Daniel Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374219125 ISBN 13: 9780374219123

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999

Synopsis

The first major biography of the great jazz pianist and singer, written with the full cooperation of his family.

When he died in 1965, at age forty-five, Nat King Cole was already a musical legend. As famous as Frank Sinatra, he had sold more records than anyone but Bing Crosby.
Written with the narrative pacing of a novel, this absorbing biography traces Cole's rise to fame, from boy-wonder jazz genius to megastar in a racist society. Daniel Mark Epstein brings Cole and his times to vivid life: his precocious entrance onto the vibrant jazz scene of his hometown, Chicago; the creation of his trio and their rise to fame; the crossover success of such songs as "Straighten Up and Fly Right"; and his years as a pop singer and television star, the first African American to have his own show.
Epstein examines Cole's insistence on changing society through his art rather than political activism, the romantic love story of Cole and Maria Ellington, and Cole's famous and influential image of calm, poise, and elegance, which concealed the personal turmoil and anxiety that undermined his health.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Mark Epstein is a poet, a dramatist, and the author of numerous books, including the biography Sister Aimee, which was widely praised as "a remarkable book" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

From the Inside Flap

When he died in 1965, at age forty-five, Nat King Cole was already a musical legend. As famous as Frank Sinatra, he had sold more records than anyone but Bing Crosby. Written with the narrative pacing of a novel, this absorbing biography traces Cole's rise to fame, from boy-wonder jazz genius to megastar in a racist society. Daniel Mark Epstein brings Cole and his times to vivid life: his precocious entrance onto the vibrant jazz scene of his hometown, Chicago; the creation of his Trio and their rise to fame; the crossover success of such songs as "Straighten Up and Fly Right"; and his years as a pop singer and television star, the first African-American to have his own show. Epstein examines Cole's insistence on changing society through his art rather than political activism, the romantic love story of Cole and Maria Ellington, and Cole's famous and influential image of calm, poise, and elegance, which concealed the personal turmoil and anxiety that undermined his health.

Reviews

Dulcet-toned Nat King Cole is remembered best today for ballads such as "Mona Lisa" and "Unforgettable," perhaps less so for his skills as a preeminent jazz pianist and composer. This respectful biography depicts a multitalented musician whoAwhether contending with racism, with black leaders criticizing his lack of activism or with jazz critics who believed he had "sold out"A maintained an implacable, dignified demeanor. Born Nathaniel Coles, he grew up in Chicago in the 1920s, when Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Gatemouth Earl Hines were helping to turn that city into a virtual mecca of jazz. Cole moved to Los Angeles in 1937, paying his dues as a struggling musician and eventually forming the original King Cole Trio. The fledgling Capitol Records recognized the commerce in Cole's liquid voice (a voice created in part, according to Epstein, by Cole's heavy cigarette habit) and exquisite style, making him a star as he and his trio moved away from jazz and embraced the pop ballads the public craved. At the height of his popularity, Cole became the first African-American to host his own television show, which, while a ratings success, fell victim to prejudice as it failed to secure a national sponsor. By the time Cole died in 1965 of lung cancer, he had become one of America's best-loved entertainers. Epstein (Sister Aimee) writes gracefully and possesses admirable musical knowledge; yet his sympathetic narrative is oddly flat. Whether because, as Epstein writes, Cole "was a master of the art of concealment" or because his personality differed little from his calm, genial and sophisticated facade, the portrait of Cole that emerges is less vibrant than his musicAthe man himself retains a regal distance. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An effusively admiring biography of the brilliant jazz pianist whose mellow crooning made him one of the first black performers to win mainstream success with white audiences. As in his book about controversial 1920s evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (Sister Aimee,1993), Epstein displays a warm affection for his subject that is appropriate when detailing the breathtaking work of Nat King Cole (191965) as a key figure in the transition from the Golden Age of Jazz to the Swing Era, but somewhat much when dealing with his personal life. The cooperation of Coles widow, Maria, explains Epsteins gushy portrait of their marriage and aint-it-sad coverage of the singers divorce from his first wife, frequent casual infidelities on the road, hard-hearted financial dealings with his sidemen when he hit the big time, and late-life affair with a white teenage chorus girl. Nonetheless, this is a marvelously evocative rendering of American jazz in its glory days and a thoughtful assessment of Coles transition to ballad singing, which resulted in such megahits as Nature Boy, Mona Lisa, and Unforgettable. Purists cried sellout, yet Epstein makes a strong case for Coles desire to reach a wider audience without abandoning his musical sophistication. Wealth and prominence brought Cole into direct conflict with racism: Residents tried to prevent him from buying a mansion in Los Angeless affluent Hancock Park section in 1948; Las Vegas hotels that paid him thousands of dollars a night to perform wouldnt permit him to stay in their rooms. Although he sued two hotels in the late 1940s, Cole was by nature nonconfrontational; he played before segregated audiences in the South, justifying it as the best way to challenge prejudice. The horrifying depiction of the chain-smoking singers ghastly final days as he succumbed to lung cancer might prompt a few readers to chuck their cigarettes. Could use a bit more edge, but Cole emerges as a lovable man with forgivably human flawsand, more to the point, a great artist in both the jazz and pop idioms. (b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Epstein (Sister Aimee) offers a breezy, balanced, and well-researched biography of singer/pianist Nat King Cole (1919-65). After introducing Cole's main musical influence, Earl Hines, he describes the budding musician's Chicago childhood and his initial success on the Chicago jazz scene, including his brush with Louis Armstrong. Epstein continues with Cole's move to Los Angeles and his rising jazz stardom as one of the Trio during the late 1930s and 1940s. He ends with Cole's transition from a respected, poll-winning jazz artist to a 1950s Newsweek-friendly pop star (the first African American to host a TV show) before he died of cancer at age 45. Using material from dozens of interviews and mountains of articles and books, Epstein characterizes Cole as a talented, ambitious genius who changed musical styles and wives as shifting times demanded. Though it seldom places Cole within a social context, this engaging, substantive, and intimate account of Cole serves as the best introduction to this musical giant yet available. Recommended to anyone interested in popular culture and music.ADavid Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the heroic days of the civil rights movement, Nat King Cole (1919^-65) was a giant. He was the most popular singer between Sinatra and Elvis, selling more records than anyone else except Bing Crosby. He used his celebrity well, memorably integrating the L.A. community in which he and his second wife settled and becoming the first African American TV star. Both achievements cost him in racial harassment and vandalism at home and racist refusal to sponsor the TV show, despite high viewership and critics' raves (he put his own money into the program--it was that important to him and to the cause). He had paid his dues, of course, beginning as a professional pianist and bandleader at age 15 in Chicago, migrating to better opportunities in L.A. at 17, gigging constantly for low pay, and creating one of the great small groups in jazz with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller. The trio proved Cole's ticket to success and jazz immortality, the latter because he and Moore were adventurous musicians who anticipated some technical advances of bebop. Epstein is never better than when writing about Cole's music, and his thorough accounting for the other parts of Cole's life is massively documented--he seems to have read everything else ever written about Cole and to have interviewed everyone still alive who knew him. Because Epstein is a very fine poet, it is odd that he so frequently lapses into boilerplate prose. But when he writes about music, he makes you want to hear it--now! For that, much can be forgiven. Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374219125
• ISBN 13: 9780374219123
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400