Nat King Cole is remembered for one of the smoothest voices of the 20th century, but he considered himself a jazz pianist first and even recorded instrumental tracks under pseudonyms like Shorty Nadine and Sam Schmaltz to avoid singing. This episode traces his path from a Baptist minister’s household in Montgomery, Alabama and Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, through formal piano lessons at 12, dropping out of high school at 15, and forming the King Cole Trio in Los Angeles, where a customer’s song request led to his first vocal performance of Sweet Lorraine.

The conversation follows the Trio’s explosion at Capitol Records, the label headquarters known as the house that Nat built, his transition into a solo vocalist with lush strings on Mona Lisa, Nature Boy and The Christmas Song, and the racial hostility he faced: a burning cross on his Hancock Park lawn, an on-stage attack in Birmingham in 1956, and criticism from Thurgood Marshall for playing segregated venues. It also covers his 1956 NBC variety show, the final album L-O-V-E recorded against medical advice, and the 1991 Unforgettable duet with his daughter Natalie Cole.

• Why a piano prodigy hid his singing and how a club request changed everything
• How the King Cole Trio’s piano, guitar and bass format broke the big band mold
• The Hancock Park backlash and his sharp reply to the property owners association
• From NAACP criticism to funding the Montgomery bus boycott and helping plan the March on Washington
• Why Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark ended his groundbreaking television show