Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole first found fame as a jazz pianist, leading the innovative King Cole Trio through the late 1930s and early 1940s, a small-group format that influenced the sound of jazz piano trios for decades. His warm, velvet baritone voice gradually moved to the centre of his recordings, and by the late 1940s he had become one of the best-selling vocalists in America.

Hits including 'Unforgettable', 'Mona Lisa' and 'Nature Boy' made Cole one of the most popular singers of his era, crossing over to mainstream white audiences at a time when few Black artists were permitted such commercial reach. His smooth, sophisticated style became a defining sound of mid-century American popular music.

In 1956, NBC gave Cole his own television variety programme, The Nat King Cole Show, making him the first Black American to host a network variety series. Despite critical acclaim and top guest stars appearing for scale pay in solidarity, the show struggled to secure a national sponsor willing to be associated with a Black host, and it was cancelled after little over a year.

Cole's response to the show's cancellation — 'Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark' — became one of the era's most pointed commentaries on the limits of Black representation in American broadcasting, even as his own musical career continued to flourish until his death from lung cancer in 1965.