Lets face the music and dance? Lets talk about music on the real, in America the jazz scene dominated the genres from the 20s and onward up until the fifties.  Of course there was such an influx of jazz during this period so one must break down the genre of jazz even further.  I’m talking my big band jazz and my vocal swing jazz and there literally was no one better in my humble opinion than Nat King Cole.  Nathaniel Adams Cole burst onto the jazz landscape in 1943 with the King Cole Trio and simultaneously signed on with the then infantile and brand spanking new Capitol records label.  From then Cole never looked back, later breaking into a solo career and producing hit after hit after hit throughout the next three decades.

The King was an extremely accomplished jazz pianist but what separated him from the rest was that smooth as a hickory wind baritone voice that even got your insides jumping around.   Ironically, and probably a little ignorantly (I was still young), I used to think that the King was the whitest cat around based on that voice of his. However he surprised me and my twelve year old conscience when I saw one of his album covers and he was black as midnight, what a dude.  Nat knew he had a great voice and was convinced that the best way to preserve it was to smoke Kool menthols on the daily.  Before a studio recording he would smoke as many as he could in succession before laying down a track.  Well as one could guess Cole died extremely prematurely in 1965 from you guessed it lung cancer.  Nat King Cole is credited for laying the foundation for the dominant conglomerate Capitol Records and today stands as one of the most imperative music personalities in American history. Enjoy your lives….CLICK FOR SOME MORE KING COLE