Nat 'King' Cole Trio - Transcriptions, Vol. 5 (1940)

The son of a Baptist minister, Nat was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 March 1917 but from 1921 grew up in Chicago. Keenly interested in the piano as a child (his brothers Eddie, Isaac and Freddy also became musicians) he was encouraged at first by his choir-mistress mother. He first played by ear but later, at high school, embarked on more serious study with the musical educators Walter Dyett and N.Clark Smith. At twelve Nat played the organ at his father's church and - he would later quip - was steeped in classical piano repertoire 'from Bach to Rachmaninoff '.