146-408: Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally by his stage name Nat King Cole , was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and pop vocalist started in the late 1930s and spanned almost three decades where he found success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in
292-518: A "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has a "special relationship to time defined as 'swing ' ". Jazz involves "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role" and contains a "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror
438-467: A church and a concert organ became harder to draw. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in
584-526: A coherent tradition". Duke Ellington , one of jazz's most famous figures, said, "It's all music." Although jazz is considered difficult to define, in part because it contains many subgenres, improvisation is one of its defining elements. The centrality of improvisation is attributed to the influence of earlier forms of music such as blues , a form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of African-American slaves on plantations. These work songs were commonly structured around
730-597: A commentator in The American Negro , "would be supporting his 'traitor' ideas and narrow way of thinking". Deeply hurt by the criticism in the black press, Cole was chastened. Emphasizing his opposition to racial segregation "in any form", he agreed to join other entertainers in boycotting segregated venues. He paid $ 500 to become a lifetime member of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Until his death in 1965, Cole
876-468: A console to produce the sounds or deliver the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital classical organs. Mechanical organs include: The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of air. The steam organ, or calliope ,
1022-446: A crusade against racism. The Chicago Defender said that Cole's performances for all-white audiences were an insult to his race. The New York Amsterdam News said that "thousands of Harlem blacks who have worshiped at the shrine of singer Nat King Cole turned their backs on him this week as the noted crooner turned his back on the NAACP and said that he will continue to play to Jim Crow audiences". To play "Uncle Nat's" discs, wrote
1168-413: A digital or electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it from the theatre organ , which is a different style of instrument. However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between
1314-617: A distinctive tremolo , became the most popular. Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz , particularly soul jazz , and in gospel music . Since these were the roots of rock and roll , the Hammond organ became a part of the rock and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer , Procol Harum , Santana and Deep Purple . Its popularity resurged in pop music around 2000, in part due to
1460-473: A drum made by stretching skin over a flour-barrel. Lavish festivals with African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music: Usually such music was associated with annual festivals, when
1606-415: A drummer and a third instrumentalist (either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs , as they are much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3. Performers of 20th century popular organ music include William Rowland who composed "Piano Rags"; George Wright (1920–1998) and Virgil Fox (1912–1980), who bridged both
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#17327877143991752-570: A half-sister, Joyce Coles. Each of the Coles brothers pursued careers in music. When Cole was four years old, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois , where his father, Edward, became a Baptist minister. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance was " Yes! We Have No Bananas " at the age of four. Cole began formal piano lessons at 12, learning jazz , gospel , and classical music "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff ". As
1898-410: A limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another "voice". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format and arrange them in
2044-547: A major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music . Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes , complex chords , call and response vocals , polyrhythms and improvisation . As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles , biguine , ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation . However, jazz did not begin as
2190-921: A major vocal public figure in the civil rights movement , Cole was a member of his local NAACP branch and participated in the 1963 March on Washington . He regularly performed for civil rights organizations. From 1956 to 1957, Cole hosted the NBC variety series The Nat King Cole Show , which became the first nationally broadcast television show hosted by an African American. Some of Cole's most notable singles include " Unforgettable ", " Smile ", " L-O-V-E ", " Nature Boy ", " When I Fall in Love ", " Let There Be Love ", " Mona Lisa ", " Autumn Leaves ", " Stardust ", " Straighten Up and Fly Right ", " The Very Thought of You ", " For Sentimental Reasons ", " Embraceable You " and " Almost Like Being in Love ". His 1960 Christmas album The Magic of Christmas (also known as The Christmas Song ),
2336-460: A multi- strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords . Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time. The last four measures of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) are shown below. African-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants,
2482-426: A pipe organ would not be a possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments, and have almost completely replaced the reed organ. The Hammond organ was the first successful electric organ , released in the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce
2628-660: A popular music form. Handy wrote about his adopting of the blues: The primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key
2774-746: A prominent place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church . Subsequently, it re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music tradition. Early organs include: Medieval organs include: The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument . These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a cubic meter to a height reaching five floors, and are built in churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are called " positive " (easily placed in different locations) or " portative " (small enough to carry while playing). The pipes are divided into ranks and controlled by
2920-439: A repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also improvisational. Classical music performance is evaluated more by its fidelity to the musical score , with less attention given to interpretation, ornamentation, and accompaniment. The classical performer's goal is to play the composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized by the product of interaction and collaboration, placing less value on
3066-485: A serious operation and... the future looks bright for 'the master' to resume his career again". On Valentine's Day, Cole and his wife briefly left St. John's to drive by the sea. Cole died at the hospital early in the morning hours of Monday, February 15, 1965, at the age of 45. Cole's funeral was held on February 18 at St. James' Episcopal Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles; 400 people were present inside
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#17327877143993212-492: A single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands , Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), and gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near
3358-410: A single short keyboard to huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes . A large modern organ typically has three or four keyboards ( manuals ) with five octaves (61 notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board . Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments". Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means "sonic-foot", a measure quite close to
3504-416: A soloist is supported by a rhythm section of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar), double bass, and drums. The rhythm section plays chords and rhythms that outline the composition structure and complement the soloist. In avant-garde and free jazz , the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales, and meters. Since
3650-485: A successful career as a singer before dying of congestive heart failure at age 65; an adopted daughter, Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at the age of 64; an adopted son, Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died of AIDS at the age of 36; and twin daughters, Casey and Timolin, born September 26, 1961. Maria supported Cole during his final illness and stayed with him until his death. In an interview, she emphasized his musical legacy and
3796-494: A telegram that said: You have not been a crusader or engaged in an effort to change the customs or laws of the South. That responsibility, newspapers quote you as saying, you leave to the other guys. That attack upon you clearly indicates that organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do. This is a fight which none of us can escape. We invite you to join us in
3942-549: A vocalist." Cole recorded with Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young . In 1946, the trio broadcast King Cole Trio Time , a 15-minute radio program. This was the first radio program to be hosted by a black musician. From 1946 to 1948, the trio recorded radio transcriptions for Capitol Records Transcription Service. They performed on the radio programs Swing Soiree , Old Gold , The Chesterfield Supper Club , Kraft Music Hall , and The Orson Welles Almanac . Cole began recording and performing pop-oriented material in which he
4088-618: A youth, Cole joined the news delivery boys' " Bud Billiken Club " band for The Chicago Defender . Cole and his family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where Cole attended Wendell Phillips Academy High School , the school Sam Cooke attended a few years later. Cole participated in Walter Dyett 's music program at DuSable High School . He would sneak out of the house to visit clubs, sitting outside to hear Louis Armstrong , Earl Hines , and Jimmie Noone . When he
4234-529: Is a "white jazz" genre that expresses whiteness . White jazz musicians appeared in the Midwest and in other areas throughout the U.S. Papa Jack Laine , who ran the Reliance band in New Orleans in the 1910s, was called "the father of white jazz". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band , whose members were white, were the first jazz group to record, and Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent jazz soloists of
4380-693: Is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example "Souvenirs From Havana" (1859)). Tresillo (shown below) is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora . Tresillo
4526-493: Is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. "By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions," jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. "Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed." In
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4672-435: Is placed in a small room, that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although
4818-400: Is that jazz can absorb and transform diverse musical styles. By avoiding the creation of norms, jazz allows avant-garde styles to emerge. For some African Americans, jazz has drawn attention to African-American contributions to culture and history. For others, jazz is a reminder of "an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions". Amiri Baraka argues that there
4964-539: Is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s; and was ranked as one of the 40 essential Christmas albums (2019) by Rolling Stone . In 2022, Cole's recording of " The Christmas Song ", broke the record for the longest journey to the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 , when it peaked at number nine, 62 years after it debuted on the chart; and was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in
5110-476: Is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm , a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning ' pep, energy ' . The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a 'jazz ball' "because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it". The use of the word in a musical context
5256-625: The Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily use a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns. An 1885 account says that they were making strange music (Creole) on an equally strange variety of 'instruments'—washboards, washtubs, jugs, boxes beaten with sticks or bones and
5402-774: The Billboard chart. Love Is the Thing went to number one in April 1957 and remained his only number one album. In 1959, Cole received a Grammy Award for Best Performance By a "Top 40" Artist for "Midnight Flyer". In 1958, Cole went to Havana, Cuba, to record Cole Español , an album sung entirely in Spanish. It was so popular in Latin America and the U.S. that it was followed by two more Spanish-language albums: A Mis Amigos (1959) and More Cole Español (1962). After
5548-498: The French Classical school also flourished. François Couperin , Nicolas Lebègue , André Raison , and Nicolas de Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England, Handel was famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently performed. After Bach's death in 1750,
5694-581: The Hammond organ have an established role in a number of popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and electromechanical organs' distinctive tone – often modified with electronic effects such as vibrato , rotating Leslie speakers , and overdrive – became an important part of
5840-524: The Scottish Rite Freemasonry , becoming a 32nd Degree Mason. Cole was "an avid baseball fan", particularly of Hank Aaron . In 1968, Nelson Riddle related an incident from some years earlier and told of music studio engineers, searching for a source of noise, finding Cole listening to a game on a transistor radio. Cole met his first wife, Nadine Robinson, while they were on tour for the all-black Broadway musical Shuffle Along . Cole
5986-438: The integrated circuit enabled another revolution in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the 1970s utilize additive synthesis , then sampling technology (1980s) and physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the sound. Virtual pipe organs use MIDI to access samples of real pipe organs stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and processor hardware inside
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6132-480: The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions or other means (generally woodwind or electric ) for producing tones. The organs have usually two or three, up to five, manuals for playing with the hands and a pedalboard for playing with the feet. With the use of registers, several groups of pipes can be connected to one manual. The organ has been used in various musical settings, particularly in classical music . Music written specifically for
6278-471: The swing era of the 1920s–40s, big bands relied more on arrangements which were written or learned by ear and memorized. Soloists improvised within these arrangements. In the bebop era of the 1940s, big bands gave way to small groups and minimal arrangements in which the melody was stated briefly at the beginning and most of the piece was improvised. Modal jazz abandoned chord progressions to allow musicians to improvise even more. In many forms of jazz,
6424-573: The 14th century, though similar designs were common in the Eastern Mediterranean from the early Byzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the hydraulic organ , have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period (1st century BC). Along with the clock , it was considered one of the most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial Revolution . Pipe organs range in size from
6570-948: The 1920s. The Chicago Style was developed by white musicians such as Eddie Condon , Bud Freeman , Jimmy McPartland , and Dave Tough . Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of swing during the 1930s. Many bands included both Black and white musicians. These musicians helped change attitudes toward race in the U.S. Female jazz performers and composers have contributed to jazz throughout its history. Although Betty Carter , Ella Fitzgerald , Adelaide Hall , Billie Holiday , Peggy Lee , Abbey Lincoln , Anita O'Day , Dinah Washington , and Ethel Waters were recognized for their vocal talent, less familiar were bandleaders, composers, and instrumentalists such as pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong , trumpeter Valaida Snow , and songwriters Irene Higginbotham and Dorothy Fields . Women began playing instruments in jazz in
6716-451: The 1950s, many women jazz instrumentalists were prominent, some sustaining long careers. Some of the most distinctive improvisers, composers, and bandleaders in jazz have been women. Trombonist Melba Liston is acknowledged as the first female horn player to work in major bands and to make a real impact on jazz, not only as a musician but also as a respected composer and arranger, particularly through her collaborations with Randy Weston from
6862-420: The 20th-century organ repertoire. Organ was also used a lot for improvisation , with organists such as Charles Tournemire , Marcel Dupré , Pierre Cochereau , Pierre Pincemaille and Thierry Escaich . Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its dramatic effect, notably Mahler , Holst , Elgar , Scriabin , Respighi , and Richard Strauss . Saint-Saëns 's Organ Symphony employs
7008-580: The American South. He said he could not change the situation in a day. He contributed money to the Montgomery bus boycott and previously sued Northern hotels that had hired him but refused to serve him. Thurgood Marshall , then-the chief legal counsel of the NAACP , said "All Cole needs to complete his role as an Uncle Tom is a banjo ." Roy Wilkins , executive secretary of the NAACP, wrote him
7154-575: The Black middle-class. Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The African use of pentatonic scales contributed to
7300-464: The Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through "body rhythms" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba dancing . In the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman , what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was "Afro-Latin music", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo
7446-579: The Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame (1997), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2000), and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2020). Cole was the father of singer Natalie Cole (1950–2015), who covered her father's songs in the 1991 album Unforgettable... with Love . Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama , on March 17, 1919. He had three brothers: Eddie (1910–1970), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (1931–2020), and
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#17327877143997592-755: The English measurement unit) and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge, which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For instance, the Wanamaker organ , located in Philadelphia , US, has sonic resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras. Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic " polyphony " approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others, and
7738-655: The Hammond organ include Bob Dylan , Counting Crows , Pink Floyd , Hootie & the Blowfish , Sheryl Crow , Vulfpeck , Sly Stone and Deep Purple . In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated with several sports, most notably baseball , basketball , and ice hockey . The first baseball team to introduce an organ was the Chicago Cubs , who put an organ in Wrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two games. Ebbets Field , home of
7884-491: The King Cole Trio before making radio transcriptions and recording for small labels. Cole recorded " Sweet Lorraine " in 1940, and it became his first hit. According to legend, his career as a vocalist started when a drunken bar patron demanded that Cole sing the song. He said that this fabricated story sounded good, so Cole did not argue with it. There was a customer one night who demanded that he sing, but because it
8030-645: The Pop chart), " Dear Lonely Hearts " (No. 13), " That Sunday, That Summer " (No. 12) and " Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer " (his final top-ten hit, reaching number 6 on the Pop chart). Cole performed in many short films, sitcoms, and television shows and played W. C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues (1958). Cole appeared in The Nat King Cole Story , China Gate , and The Blue Gardenia (1953). In January 1964, Cole made one of his final television appearances, on The Jack Benny Program . He
8176-665: The Starlight Roof at the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . He entertained audiences with a light elegant musical style which remained popular with audiences for nearly three decades from the 1930s until the late 1950s. Jazz originated in the late-19th to early-20th century. It developed out of many forms of music, including blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . It also incorporated interpretations of American and European classical music, entwined with African and slave folk songs and
8322-467: The Tibia pipe family as its foundation stops and the regular use of a tremulant possessing a depth greater than that on a classical organ. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as standard organs, relying on extension (sometimes called unification) and higher wind pressures to produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from fewer pipes. Unification gives a smaller instrument
8468-745: The United States National Recording Registry . NPR named him one of the 50 Great Voices . Cole received numerous accolades including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960) and a Special Achievement Golden Globe Award . Posthumously, Cole has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990), along with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award (1992) and has been inducted into
8614-526: The aisles of the auditorium towards Cole. Local law enforcement quickly ended their invasion of the stage, but not until Cole was toppled from his piano bench and received a slight injury to his back. He did not finish the concert. Police later found rifles, a blackjack , and brass knuckles , in a car outside the venue. A fourth member of the group was later arrested. All were tried and convicted. Six men, including 23-year-old Willie Richard Vinson, were formally charged with assault with intent to murder Cole, but
8760-424: The arrangements focus primarily on the vocal rather than instrumental leads. Cole had one of his last major hits in 1963, two years before his death, with " Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer ", which reached number 6 on the Pop chart. " Unforgettable " was made famous again in 1991 by Cole's daughter Natalie when modern recording technology was used to reunite father and daughter in a duet. The duet version rose to
8906-482: The availability of clonewheel organs that were light enough for one person to carry. In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the company's founder, Jerome Markowitz. Allen continued to advance analog tone generation through the 1960s with additional patents. In 1971, in collaboration with North American Rockwell, Allen introduced
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#17327877143999052-552: The blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic , rural blues and early jazz "was largely based on concepts of heterophony ". During the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized
9198-588: The capability of a much larger one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more homogeneous than a classically designed organ. In the US the American Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in programs to preserve examples of such instruments. A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and sometimes without separate pedal pipes that
9344-486: The change in musical tastes, Cole's ballads appealed little to young listeners, despite a successful attempt at rock and roll with " Send for Me ", which peaked at number 6 on the pop chart. Like Dean Martin , Frank Sinatra , and Tony Bennett , Cole found that the pop chart had been taken over by youth-oriented acts. In 1960, Cole's longtime collaborator Nelson Riddle left Capitol to join Reprise Records , which
9490-431: The charges against four of them was later changed to conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor. The original plan to attack Cole included 150 men from Birmingham and nearby towns. "I can't understand it," Cole said afterwards. "I have not taken part in any protests. Nor have I joined an organization fighting segregation. Why should they attack me?" Cole wanted to forget the incident and continued to play for segregated audiences in
9636-453: The church, and thousands gathered outside. Hundreds of members of the public had filed past the coffin the day before. Honorary pallbearers included Robert F. Kennedy , Count Basie , Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis Jr. , Johnny Mathis , George Burns , Danny Thomas , Jimmy Durante , Alan Livingston , Frankie Laine , Steve Allen , and Pat Brown , the governor of California . The eulogy was delivered by Jack Benny , who said that "Nat Cole
9782-496: The class he exhibited despite his imperfections. In August 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the ex-husband of silent film actress Lois Weber , in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, a burning cross was placed on his front lawn and the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any "undesirables" moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be
9928-479: The classical and religious areas of music. Church-style pipe organs are sometimes used in rock music . Examples include Tangerine Dream , Rick Wakeman (with Yes and solo), Keith Emerson (with The Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer ), George Duke (with Frank Zappa ), Dennis DeYoung (with Styx ), Arcade Fire , Muse , Roger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp ), Natalie Merchant (with 10,000 Maniacs ), Billy Preston and Iron Butterfly . Artists using
10074-473: The contribution of the composer, if there is one, and more on the performer. The jazz performer interprets a tune in individual ways, never playing the same composition twice. Depending on the performer's mood, experience, and interaction with band members or audience members, the performer may change melodies, harmonies, and time signatures. In early Dixieland , a.k.a. New Orleans jazz, performers took turns playing melodies and improvising countermelodies . In
10220-417: The coveted Christmas number 1 spot. Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans , Louisiana , in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . Since the 1920s Jazz Age , it has been recognized as
10366-555: The development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains: Many of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt: W. C. Handy became interested in folk blues of the Deep South while traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within
10512-408: The development of the electronic organ. It generated its sounds using reeds similar to those of an accordion . Smaller, cheaper and more portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and tonal range was extremely limited. They were generally limited to one or two manuals; they seldom had a pedalboard. The chord organ
10658-509: The early 1920s, drawing particular recognition on piano. When male jazz musicians were drafted during World War II, many all-female bands replaced them. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm , which was founded in 1937, was a popular band that became the first all-female integrated band in the U.S. and the first to travel with the USO , touring Europe in 1945. Women were members of the big bands of Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson . Beginning in
10804-480: The education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows , and in vaudeville , during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as
10950-593: The emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form". Regarding the Dixieland jazz revival of the 1940s, Black musicians rejected it as being shallow nostalgia entertainment for white audiences. On the other hand, traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, and jazz fusion as forms of debasement and betrayal. An alternative view
11096-525: The end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines. The mid-1950s saw the emergence of hard bop , which introduced influences from rhythm and blues , gospel , and blues to small groups and particularly to saxophone and piano. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode , or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation, as did free jazz , which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in
11242-556: The entertainer Ernest Hogan , whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William Krell published his " Mississippi Rag " as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his "Harlem Rag", the first rag published by an African-American. Classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his " Original Rags " in 1898 and, in 1899, had an international hit with " Maple Leaf Rag ",
11388-466: The first hosted by an African American. The program started at a length of fifteen minutes but was increased to a half-hour in July 1957. Rheingold Beer was a regional sponsor, but a national sponsor was never found. The show was in trouble financially despite efforts by NBC, Harry Belafonte , Tony Bennett , Ella Fitzgerald , Eartha Kitt , Frankie Laine , Peggy Lee , and Mel Tormé . Cole decided to end
11534-712: The first to complain." His dog died after eating poisoned meat, something likely to be connected to his moving to the neighborhood. In 1956, Cole was contracted to perform in Cuba. He wanted to stay at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana but was refused because it operated a color bar . Cole honored his contract, and the concert at the Tropicana Club was a huge success. The following year, Cole returned to Cuba for another concert, singing many songs in Spanish. Cole
11680-415: The first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803). From the perspective of African-American music, the "habanera rhythm" (also known as "congo"), "tango-congo", or tango . can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat . The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States and reinforced and inspired
11826-532: The habanera rhythm and cinquillo , are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin and Turpin. Joplin's " Solace " (1909) is generally considered to be in the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk," whilst Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass". In
11972-512: The individuality of the performing jazz musician". A broader definition that encompasses different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: "it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities". Krin Gibbard argued that "jazz is a construct" which designates "a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of
12118-424: The influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre. By the 18th century, slaves in the New Orleans area gathered socially at a special market, in an area which later became known as Congo Square , famous for its African dances. By 1866,
12264-460: The instruments of jazz: brass, drums, and reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale. Small bands contained a combination of self-taught and formally educated musicians, many from the funeral procession tradition. These bands traveled in black communities in the deep south. Beginning in 1914, Louisiana Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which carried jazz to cities in
12410-406: The late 1930s, when he formed The King Cole Trio, which became the top-selling group (and the only black act) on Capitol Records in the 1940s. Cole's trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Starting in 1950, he transitioned to become a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole. Despite achieving mainstream success, Cole faced intense racial discrimination during his career. While not
12556-578: The late 1950s into the 1990s. Jewish Americans played a significant role in jazz. As jazz spread, it developed to encompass many different cultures, and the work of Jewish composers in Tin Pan Alley helped shape the many different sounds that jazz came to incorporate. Jewish Americans were able to thrive in Jazz because of the probationary whiteness that they were allotted at the time. George Bornstein wrote that African Americans were sympathetic to
12702-455: The late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music 's rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz . The origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history
12848-955: The many top players he employed, such as George Brunies , Sharkey Bonano , and future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band . During the early 1900s, jazz was mostly performed in African-American and mulatto communities due to segregation laws. Storyville brought jazz to a wider audience through tourists who visited the port city of New Orleans. Many jazz musicians from African-American communities were hired to perform in bars and brothels. These included Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton in addition to those from other communities, such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez . Louis Armstrong started his career in Storyville and found success in Chicago. Storyville
12994-607: The middle of the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and sacred applications. The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent movies . Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra. However, it includes many more gadgets, such as mechanical percussion accessories and other imitative sounds useful in creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and bird whistles. It typically features
13140-417: The modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs. Keyboard pieces that predate Beethoven may usually be as easily played on a chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is more suitable for producing a sustained tone. The pump organ , reed organ or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
13286-487: The most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part by Sweelinck and Frescobaldi, the North German school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence, with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude , Franz Tunder , Georg Böhm , Georg Philipp Telemann , and above all Johann Sebastian Bach , whose contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme. During this time,
13432-646: The music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African American cultures. The Black Codes outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in
13578-583: The music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clavé", a Spanish word meaning "code" or "key", as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although the pattern is only half a clave , Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz. The abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for
13724-399: The ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Chicago which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. . Featured that day were Roy Brown and his Orchestra, Shorty Rogers , Earl Bostic , Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, and Louis Armstrong and his All Stars with Velma Middleton . On November 5, 1956, The Nat 'King' Cole Show debuted on NBC. The variety program was one of
13870-467: The northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe 's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York City, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson 's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides
14016-618: The northern and western parts of the U.S. Jazz became international in 1914, when the Creole Band with cornettist Freddie Keppard performed the first ever jazz concert outside the United States, at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg , Canada. In New Orleans, a white bandleader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. He was known as "the father of white jazz" because of
14162-515: The organ is common from the Renaissance to the present day. Pipe organs , the most traditional type, operate by forcing air through pipes of varying sizes and materials, each producing a different pitch and tone. These instruments are commonly found in churches and concert halls , where they have long been associated with liturgical music and grand ceremonial occasions. Mechanical or electronic systems are used by non-pipe organs to emulate
14308-410: The organ more as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect. Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved mainstream popularity. Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to be notated on three staves . The music played on the manuals is laid out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves, and the music for
14454-525: The organ's prominence gradually shrank, as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano . Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn , César Franck , and the less famous A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led, independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France (even though Franck himself
14600-499: The pedals is notated on the third stave or sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ music is usually published in oblong or landscape format. Electronic organs and electromechanical organs such as
14746-500: The period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War. Another influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals . The origins of
14892-494: The plight of the Jewish American and vice versa. As disenfranchised minorities themselves, Jewish composers of popular music saw themselves as natural allies with African Americans. The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson is one example of how Jewish Americans were able to bring jazz, music that African Americans developed, into popular culture. Benny Goodman was a vital Jewish American to the progression of Jazz. Goodman
15038-459: The post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. "The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms ," observed
15184-676: The pre-jazz era and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music. The music of New Orleans , Louisiana had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. In New Orleans, slaves could practice elements of their culture such as voodoo and playing drums. Many early jazz musicians played in the bars and brothels of the red-light district around Basin Street called Storyville . In addition to dance bands, there were marching bands which played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals ). The instruments used by marching bands and dance bands became
15330-448: The predecessor to modern portable keyboards , as they included one-touch chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments. In the 1960s and 1970s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop, Ska (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and
15476-624: The program. The last episode aired on December 17, 1957. Commenting on the lack of sponsorship, Cole said shortly after its demise: " Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." Throughout the 1950s, Cole continued to record hits that sold millions throughout the world, such as " Smile ", " Pretend ", " A Blossom Fell ", and "If I May". His pop hits were collaborations with Nelson Riddle , Gordon Jenkins , and Ralph Carmichael . Riddle arranged several of Cole's 1950s albums, including Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love (1953), his first 10-inch LP. In 1955, " Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup " reached number 7 on
15622-520: The relationship with Hutton. Cole's illness reconciled him with his wife, and Cole vowed that if he recovered, he would go on television to urge people to stop smoking. On January 25, Cole's entire left lung was surgically removed. His father died of heart problems on February 1. Throughout Cole's illness, his publicists promoted the idea that he would soon be well and working, despite the private knowledge of his terminal condition. Billboard magazine reported that "Nat King Cole has successfully come through
15768-410: The rhythm and bassline. In Ohio and elsewhere in the mid-west the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by
15914-480: The show ended in Los Angeles, Cole and Nadine settled there while he looked for work. Cole led a big band and found work playing piano in nightclubs. When a club owner asked him to form a band, Cole hired bassist Wesley Prince and guitarist Oscar Moore . They called themselves the King Cole Swingsters after the nursery rhyme in which " Old King Cole was a merry old soul ". They changed their name to
16060-457: The slight imperfections in tuning. Hybrids , starting in the early 20th century, incorporate a few ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions. Major manufacturers include Allen , Walker, Compton , Wicks, Marshall & Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers . The development of
16206-654: The sound of pipe organs. Predecessors to the organ include: The organ is a relatively old musical instrument , dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who invented the water organ . It was played throughout the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games. During the early medieval period it spread from the Byzantine Empire , where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial court music, to Western Europe , where it gradually assumed
16352-474: The sound of popular music. The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the 1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the standard jazz combo. The Hammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ trio , a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing melodies, chords and basslines),
16498-475: The sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels. By emphasizing certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as 'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker , which rotates to create
16644-595: The sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the instrument itself. Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally attributed to Pope Vitalian in the 7th century. Due to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased brightness above
16790-725: The top of the pop charts, almost forty years after its original popularity. Cole's final studio album was titled L-O-V-E . The album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. Around the time Cole launched his singing career, he entered into Freemasonry . Cole was raised in January 1944 in the Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49 in California. The lodge was named after fellow Prince Hall mason and jazz musician Fats Waller . Cole joined
16936-500: The twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published." For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk , ragtime , and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. Habaneras were widely available as sheet music and were
17082-511: The use of hand stops and combination pistons . Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box , allowing the dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are expressive. It has existed in its current form since
17228-575: The use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music. New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk 's piano piece "Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work "A Night in the Tropics" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers. Comparing
17374-404: The vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to accompany human voices , whether a congregation , a choir , or a cantor or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the conclusion of the service. Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above),
17520-626: The way I felt and that's just the way it came out. Cole was the original house pianist for Jazz at the Philharmonic and performed at the first recorded concert in 1944. He was credited on Mercury as "Shorty Nadine", a derivative of his wife's name, because Cole had an exclusive contract with Capitol since signing with the label the year before. He used a variety of other pseudonyms for the same reason, including Eddie Laguna, Sam Schmaltz, Nature Boy and A Guy, "or whatever name for himself he could think of, but only as an instrumentalist, never as
17666-546: The world's first commercially available digital musical instrument. The first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution. Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches . From the 1940s up until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered
17812-498: The writer Robert Palmer, speculating that "this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured." African-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century when the habanera (Cuban contradanza ) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take
17958-500: The year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered "gumbo box", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from
18104-414: Was 15, Cole dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. After his brother Eddie, a bassist, came home from touring with Noble Sissle , they formed a sextet and recorded two singles for Decca in 1936 as Eddie Cole's Swingsters. They performed in a revival of the musical Shuffle Along . Nat Cole went on tour with the musical. In 1937, he married Nadine Robinson, who was a member of the cast. After
18250-531: Was 18 when they married and she was the reason why he moved to Los Angeles and formed the Nat King Cole trio. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1948. On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), six days after his divorce became final, Cole married singer Maria Hawkins . The Coles were married in Harlem 's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. . They had five children: Natalie (1950–2015), who had
18396-557: Was a man who gave so much and still had so much to give. He gave it in song, in friendship to his fellow man, devotion to his family. He was a star, a tremendous success as an entertainer, an institution. But he was an even greater success as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend." Cole's remains were interred in Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park , in Glendale , California. Cole's last album, L-O-V-E ,
18542-412: Was a signature sound in the rock music of the period, such as The Doors and Iron Butterfly . The most popular combo organs were manufactured by Farfisa and Vox . Conn-Selmer and Rodgers , dominant in the market for larger instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to
18688-435: Was a song Cole did not know, he sang "Sweet Lorraine" instead. As people heard Cole's vocal talent, they requested more vocal songs, and he obliged. In 1941, the trio recorded "That Ain't Right" for Decca, followed the next year by "All for You" for Excelsior . They recorded " I'm Lost ", a song written by Otis René , the owner of Excelsior. I started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang
18834-655: Was among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Cole consulted with Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson , on civil rights. In September 1964, Cole began to lose weight and experienced back problems. He collapsed with pain after performing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. In December, Cole was working in San Francisco when he
18980-607: Was an active and visible participant in the civil rights movement , playing an important role in planning the March on Washington in 1963. Cole performed in 1956 for President Dwight D. Eisenhower 's televised birthday celebration. At the 1956 Republican National Convention , he sang " That's All There Is to That " and was "greeted with applause". Cole was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960 to support Senator John F. Kennedy . Cole
19126-664: Was assaulted during a concert on April 10, 1956, in Birmingham, Alabama, while singing the song "Little Girl" on stage with the Ted Heath Band. After photographs of Cole with white female fans were circulated bearing such incendiary, boldface captions as "Cole and His White Women" and "Cole and Your Daughter," three men belonging to the North Alabama Citizens Council attacked Cole in an apparent attempt to kidnap him. The three assailants ran down
19272-497: Was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune . Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916, Times-Picayune article about "jas bands". In an interview with National Public Radio , musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying: "When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z'. It wasn't called that. It
19418-483: Was established by Frank Sinatra. Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album, Wild Is Love , with lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Cole later retooled the concept album into an Off-Broadway show, I'm with You . Nevertheless, Cole recorded several hit singles during the 1960s, including "Let There Be Love" with George Shearing in 1961, the country-flavored hit " Ramblin' Rose " in August 1962 (reaching No. 2 on
19564-450: Was finally persuaded by friends to seek medical help. A malignant tumor in an advanced state of growth on Cole's left lung was observed on a chest X-ray . Cole, who was a heavy cigarette smoker , had lung cancer and was expected to have only months to live. Against his doctors' wishes, Cole carried on his work and made his final recordings between December 1 and 3 in San Francisco, with an orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael . The music
19710-504: Was introduced as "the best friend a song ever had" and sang " When I Fall in Love ". Cat Ballou (1965), Cole's final film, was released several months after his death. Earlier on, Cole's shift to traditional pop led some jazz critics and fans to accuse him of selling out, but he never abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, Cole recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight , and many of his albums after this are fundamentally jazz-based, being scored for big band without strings, although
19856-529: Was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950. It provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion. Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s. Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both professional and amateur for whom
20002-478: Was invented in the United States in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound. Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built on wheeled platforms. The organ has had an important place in classical music , particularly since the 16th century. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón , the Netherlands' Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck , and Italy's Girolamo Frescobaldi were three of
20148-433: Was major ... , and I carried this device into my melody as well. The publication of his " Memphis Blues " sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but "more like a cakewalk"). This composition, as well as his later " St. Louis Blues " and others, included the habanera rhythm, and would become jazz standards . Handy's music career began in
20294-758: Was of Belgian birth). Major names in French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor , Louis Vierne , Alexandre Guilmant , Charles Tournemire , and Eugène Gigout . Of these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils. In Germany, Max Reger (late 19th century) owes much to the harmonic daring of Liszt (himself an organ composer) and of Wagner . Paul Hindemith produced three organ sonatas and several works combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes. Among French organist-composers, Marcel Dupré , Maurice Duruflé , Olivier Messiaen and Jean Langlais made significant contributions to
20440-577: Was often accompanied by a string orchestra . Cole's stature as a popular star was cemented by hits such as "All for You" (1943), " The Christmas Song " (1947), " (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 ", " (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons " (1946), " There! I've Said It Again " (1947), " Nature Boy " (1948), " Frosty the Snowman ", " Mona Lisa " (No. 1 song of 1950), " Orange Colored Sky " (1950), " Too Young " (the No. 1 song of 1951). On June 7, 1953, Cole performed for
20586-543: Was recorded in early December 1964—just a few days before he entered the hospital for cancer treatment—and was released just before his death. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A Best Of album was certified a gold record in 1968. His 1957 recording of "When I Fall in Love" reached number 4 in the UK charts in 1987, released in reaction to a version by Rick Astley challenging for
20732-580: Was released from the hospital over the New Year's period. At home, Cole was able to see the hundreds of thousands of cards and letters that had been sent after news of his illness was made public. Cole returned to the hospital in early January 1965. He also sent $ 5,000 (US$ 49,000 in 2023 dollars) to actress and singer Gunilla Hutton , with whom Cole had been romantically involved since early 1964. Hutton later telephoned Maria and implored her to divorce him. Maria confronted her husband, and Cole finally broke off
20878-657: Was released on the album L-O-V-E shortly before Cole died. His daughter noted later that he did this to assure the welfare of his family. Cole entered Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica on December 7, 1964, and cobalt therapy was started on December 10. Frank Sinatra performed in Cole's place at the grand opening of the new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center on December 12. Cole's condition gradually worsened, but he
21024-406: Was shut down by the U.S. government in 1917. Cornetist Buddy Bolden played in New Orleans from 1895 to 1906. No recordings by him exist. His band is credited with creating the big four: the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. Organ (music) In music ,
21170-651: Was spelled 'J-A-S-S'. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies." The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the 20th Century . Jazz is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to rock -infused fusion . Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as
21316-536: Was the leader of a racially integrated band named King of Swing. His jazz concert in the Carnegie Hall in 1938 was the first ever to be played there. The concert was described by Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history". Shep Fields also helped to popularize "Sweet" Jazz music through his appearances and Big band remote broadcasts from such landmark venues as Chicago's Palmer House , Broadway's Paramount Theater and
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