Share Me That Information

Nat King Cole was born as Nathaniel Adams Coles on Saint Patrick’s Day, 17th March 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. His glorious career as a favourite American crooner inronically started as a bar room jazz pianist.

Although Nat King Cole was a pianist of excellent deterity, his meteoric rise to musical fame was largely due to his sweet velvety singing, crooning out heart melting melodies that made his throngs of female fans swooned headily!

The King also made history as the first American of African descent to host a television variety show and was wildly popular worldwide even decades following his unfortunate demise in 1965 at the young age of 45 due to lung cancer.

As a child, the Nat’s family moved to Chicago where young the young Cole’s father served as a Baptist pastor in a local church. The boy learnt how to play the organ from his mother, Perlina, who was the church organist.

Nat began formal piano lessons when he was only 12 years old. This gifted musician was so talented that he could play almost any genre of music at that time and at a very young age. He was not only able to play gospel music which was his root, but everything else from jazz to classical masterpieces!

When his family moved home again to Bronzeville in Chicago. The lad would sneak out of the house and hang around outside the clubs, listening to and get inspired by musical greats such as Louis Armstrong, Earl Fatha Hines and Jimmie Noone.

Nat King Cole started his performing musical career when he was in his teens sometime in the middle 1930s. He teamed up with his elder brother, Eddie Coles, who played the bass and made their first album recording in 1936.

So how did the word ‘King’ sneaked into the singer’s middle name? Well, it was thought that young Nat got his nickname ‘King’ while performing the nursery rhyme song ‘Old King Cole’.

Not long after that, Nat King Cole along with three other musicians formed the band “King Cole Swingers” in Long Beach, Los Angeles and played in a number of local bars and clubs before getting a gig on the Long Beach Pike for less than a hundred dollars a week.

When Nat married dancer Nadine Robinson and moved to Los Angeles, he formed the famous Nat King Cole Trio with Oscar Moore on the guitar and Wesley Prince on the double bass. The trio played in Los Angeles throughout the late 1930s and recorded many albums and made radio appearances regularly.

Although the band was basically a music band, young Nat used to sing a song or two now and then and soon, be began to notice that people started to request more vocal numbers. This inspired him to sing more songs and more often.

When Wesley Prince left the trio during the second world war, Cole replaced the bass player with Johnny Miller. Johnny would in turn be replaced by Charlie Harris sometime in the middle of the last century.

Although, Nat King Cole Trio signed up with the then fledgling Capitol Records in 1943, Cole went on to stay with Capital Records for the rest of his glorious musical career. In fact, it was due largely to revenues from Cole’s record sales which fueled much of Capitol Records’ success story as a recording company during this period.

This revenue was believed to be the main source of funding for the iconic Capitol Records Building on Hollywood and Vine, in Los Angeles 1956. Capital Record’s building was the world’s first circular office building and many people called the building “the house that Nat built.”

As a popular and excellent jazz pianist, Cole was featured in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. His revolutionary three piece band consisting of only a piano, guitar and bass in the time of the big bands became the trend setter for jazz trios henceforth.

This 3 piece band set up was emulated by many great musicians of that era and including the likes of iconic musical giants such as Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Tommy Flanagan, Charles Brown and Ray Charles, just to name a few of the great musical illuminaries.

The big break for Cole as a mainstream singer came with his own composition and a vocal hit recorded in 1943 called “Straighten Up and Fly Right”. The album sold more than half a million copies and this was in 1943 when sales figures like this were billed as being astronomical.

In the late 1940s, Nat began recording and performing more pop-oriented songs for mainstream audiences, often accompanied by a full string orchestra and retched up golden hits after hits like “The Christmas Song”, “Mona Lisa”, “Too Young” and of course, his signature tune, “Unforgettable”. With this shift towards more popular music, some jazz critics and fans accused the singer of selling out his jazz gospel roots.

Then the unthinkable happened. In 5th Novemberr, 1956, “The Nat King Cole Show” made history by debuting on NBC-TV as the first of its kind hosted by an African descent American. The program begun as a 15 minute show every Monday night and as its popularity grew, was expanded into a 30 minute show in July 1957.

The great Nat King Cole made his final television appearance on The Jack Benny Show and Benny allowed his guest star to steal the show at a time when racism was still rampant in the mostly white America. Cole was introduced by Benny as “the best friend a song ever had” and Cole sung and crooned “When I Fall in Love” in perhaps his finest and most memorable singing performance ever.

Throughout the 1950s, Nat King Cole continued to present the world with hit after hit songs such as “Smile,” “Pretend,” and “A Blossom Fell” teaming up with well-known music arrangers, composers and conductors of that era such as Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Ralph Carmichael.

Cole went on to record more hits during the 60s such as “Ramblin’ Rose”, “Dear Lonely Hearts,” “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days Of Summer” and “That Sunday, That Summer”. Nat King Cole recorded his last album, “L-O-V-E” in early December 1964 and the album was released just prior to his death.

As a heavy smoker, Nat King Cole finally succumbed and died of lung cancer on February 15, 1965. In a radio interview on the day before he passed away, Cole said, “I am feeling better than ever. I think I’ve finally got this cancer licked.” However, sadly, that was not the case.

Among his many many honorable citations, Cole was inducted into both the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, and in 1997 was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Although the ‘King’ of crooers have left us long ago, the man’s songs still live on with us and can often be heard in many jazz clubs throughout the world. Such is the love of the great Nat King Cole and his songs!

Chris Chew is the music editor of the music education website Learn How To Develop Perfect Pitch and Learn How To Write Your Own Songs

Alberta, Canada rockers Nickelback were honored at the Juno Awards, the Canadian version of the Grammys, on Sunday night (March 29). Nickelback took home trophies for Group of the Year, Album of the Year for Dark Horses and the Fan Choice Award and led the pack with five nominations going into the 38th edition of the Juno Awards, which were held in Vancouver and broadcast on CTV.

Artist of the Year went to Montreal rocker Sam Roberts, and Toronto-based hip-hop artist Kardinal Offishall garnered a Juno for Best Rap Recording of the Year (he also won a Juno for Best Single of the Year the night before for “Dangerous”). Canadian songstress Lights was hailed Best New Artist of the Year, Alanis Morissette’s Flavors of Entanglement was named Best Pop Album and Montreal indie rockers the Stills took home pre-telecast Junos on Saturday night for Best Alternative Album of the Year and New Group of the Year. British rock band Coldplay won Best International Album of the Year for Viva La Vida, beating out AC/DC, Jack Johnson, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses in the only Juno category open to non-Canadian acts (which is based on domestic music sales).

Vocalist Chad Kroeger formed Nickelback in the late 1990s after fronting a batch of cover bands in his tiny Canadian hometown of Hanna, located just outside of Calgary. After moving to Vancouver, Kroeger teamed up with his brother Mike to form a band with fellow Vancouver transplants Ryan Peake (guitar) and Ryan Vikedal (drums). Christening themselves Nickelback, the band released a pair of albums, the Hesher EP and the Curb LP, in 1996. Nickelback released their sophomore independent album, The State, in 2000, and the album climbed the indie charts.

After playing over 200 shows in support of the album, the rights to The State were picked up by Roadrunner Records in the U.S. and EMI in Canada. Nickelback then scored their biggest single yet with “How You Remind Me.” The infectious track was featured on Silver Side Up, which was produced by rock Parashar, known for his work with Pearl Jam, Blind Melon and Alice in Chains.

The Long Road was released in 2003 on the heels of the radio-ready track “Someday” and quickly sold over five million copies worldwide. Ryan Vikedal left Nickelback soon after the release of The Long Road and was replaced by Daniel Adair, who was on board for 2005’s All the Right Reasons, which landed on the top of the charts, yielded five Top 20 singles and sold over seven million copies in the U.S. alone. Nickelback travelled to Switzerland to record their next effort with veteran hitmaker Mutt Lange and the result was the Canadian band’s most successful album to date, All the Right Reasons. Dark Horse, the band’s most recent album, arrived in November 2008 and landed at number two on Billboard’s 200 chart thanks to the success of lead single “Something in Your Mouth.”

Nickelback is hitting the road in support of Dark Horse with Seether and Saving Abel so get your Nickelback tickets online before tickets to see these Juno Award winners are all gone!

This article is sponsored by StubHub. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling Nickelback tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

Season Seven American Idol winner David Cook canceled a pair of shows earlier this week due to what his website called “personal family matters.” Posted on Sunday, the note explained: “We are cancelling [Monday’s] and Tuesday’s shows to allow David time to deal with personal family matters. Please respect his privacy at this time. David would live everyone to rest assured that we are working with the universities to reschedule the shows that are missed.” The affected shows were at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire on Monday (March 30) and at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut on Tuesday (March 31). Check online for David Cook tickets.

The American Idol alum’s pretaped appearance on tonight’s Idol elimination show will not be affected by the cancellation and Cook will resume the tour tomorrow. David Cook’s spokesperson confirmed the cancellations with MTV.com and said the singer went home to spend time with his family but would not offer any more information. During his stint on the popular Fox reality show Cook was open about his older brother Adam’s long struggle with brain cancer. A representative did tell People magazine that Cook was at his brother’s side last week, and the singer’s website was bombarded by letters of support from fans.

David Cook was born in Houston, TX in 1982 but was raised in Blue Springs, MO, where he was bitten by the singing bug in elementary school and began starring in musicals while in high school. Cook formed his first band Axium with a classmate as a junior in high school and the group continued to perform into Cook’s college years, even releasing two independently released albums which created some national buzz. Cook attended the University of Central Missouri on a theater scholarship but after two years switched majors and began studying graphic design. Subsequent to graduating in 2006, Cook parted ways with Axium and moved to Tulsa, OK, where he worked as a bartender and performed with a band called the Midwest Kings. Also that year, the fledgling musician released an independently produced solo album, Analog Heart. After auditioning for Fox’s American Idol, the album began to sell online.

Cook initially came to the Idol auditions to support his younger brother Andrew, who didn’t make it past the first round and encouraged David to try out. He sang Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and was welcomed into the competition’s Hollywood round with open arms. Cook had been playing the guitar since he was 12 years old and took advantage of the show’s new rule that allowed contestants to play instruments onstage. Despite gaining a slow start on the show, Cook performed Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” during week three and garnered rave reviews from the judges. For “Hello,” Cook created a post-grunge power ballad from an R&B song, a formula which he would adopt later on in the competition, as well, such as when he performed a rock version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

Reportedly as a result of stress caused by his brother’s cancer, Cook was taken to the hospital after suffering high blood pressure and heart palpitations during the competition, but he quickly returned to the show and engaged in what fans referred to as “the Battle of the Davids,” the “other David” being 17-year-old David Archuleta. Despite going neck-to-neck with Archuleta at the end of the competition, Cook emerged victorious and was crowned the seventh season winner on May 21, 2009. 11 of his songs entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart just two weeks after his win and his full-length major-label debut album was released six months later. The album, which featured collaborations with Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, Our Lady Peace’s Raine Maida and Chris Cornell, was certified platinum in early 2009, around the same time the next season of American Idol was kicking off. Get your David Cook tickets to see the Idol alum live.

This article is sponsored by StubHub. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling David Cook tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

Acoustic guitars are descendants of stringed instruments that were found in a variety of cultures thousands and thousands of years ago. As civilizations merged and the world became smaller, the guitar began taking on a unified shape and style. Since then, there has been a lineal evolution of several hundreds of years of instruments that can be directly compared to today’s acoustic guitars.

The Medieval Period

During the Medieval Period of European history, there were several different forms of guitars. These guitars had between three and five strings and were much smaller than the guitars we know today. There were variations of these instruments which had pairs of strings, known as courses. The popular guitars of this period were commonly separated into two groupings. The first, the Guitarra Latina was likely developed from Spain, while the Guitarra Morisca was brought to Spain by the Moorish culture.

The Renaissance and Beyond

While in the Middle Ages, the guitar instruments were not terribly popular, being overshadowed by other contemporary instruments, in the Renaissance the guitar began to take a real hold. It was in Italy in 1779 that the first six string guitar was created. Gaetano Vinaccia created this instrument in Naples. Following that, the man known as the “Father of Modern Guitar” made his permanent mark on the course of the guitar and how it would be designed and played.

Antonio de Torres Jurado made many key changes that in essence from the creation of what is known today as the modern classical guitar. Among these changes were the design elements that are recognizable as an acoustic or classical guitar today. The body was made larger and wider to help make sound travel farther and be louder, while the construction was also sturdier, more complete and more technically savvy.

The Acoustic Guitar

The instrument that Antonio de Torres created and made popular was the Classical guitar. The acoustic guitar is commonly misinterpreted as being the same as the Classical guitar. This is not true, there are many key differences in the design of these two separate guitars. The most important of which is that the acoustic guitar has steel strings, while the Classical guitar is strung with nylon strings.

The body was also made larger and sturdier still. The acoustic guitar was much better for performing in larger areas as it was increasingly louder than the Classical guitar; the two guitars also produce different ranges and textures of sounds which various styles of music correspond to.

The acoustic guitar was actually developed in America from European immigrants. The last major development of the acoustic guitar is the electrical-acoustic guitar. These acoustic guitars can be plugged into an amplifier for increased volume or can be left unplugged and played as is.

So next time you pick up an acoustic guitar, remember the history you hold in your hands.

The Vintage Guitar Warehouse offers great deals on vintage guitars and with up to minute vintage guitar prices.

So you have been taking singing and vocal lessons for some months now. However you noticed that you have made little or even no positive progress in your singing and vocal skills. Your voice is still quivers and even crack when you attempt to sing higher notes and keys. So, are you taking the correct singing lessons from the right singing teacher?

Now, since you are paying good money for your music tuition and not getting good results, then ultimately the responsibility rest with you. Yes, this sounds harsh but you have to take full responsibility for your own singing lessons and you must get good singing teacher to facilitate your vocal training.

So how do you know that you have the right singing teacher or not? Well, if you have chosen a good singing teacher, you would have noticed the improvements in your singing within weeks. Yes, just in a matter of weeks, you should be a more proficient singer than before you started.

The issues regarding your singing would be getting addressed and remedied by your own singing teacher by now. This is what you should expect from your singing teacher since you are paying good money for.

The problem these days is that that anyone can just call themselves a singing teacher and start charging for singing lessons whether or not they are competent in what they do. Since the American Idol TV series started, there are many so called “singing teachers” popping up all over the world.

So, how can you ascertain that a teacher is competent? Well, you have to try their lessons for yourself or get a reliable referral from someone who has tried it and gotten good results.

Since you have to pay for the lessons, it is your prerogative to choose and shop around until you find a singing coach who can deliver the results you desire. This method be expensive because each time you go to a new singing teacher, you will pay for the lessons, whether or not the lessons are effective.

What I am going to say next may be obvious, but people are still doing it. Don’t ever pay for a second bad lesson! Keep on looking until you find a teacher who can give you solid results.

Very few if any singing teachers will give you free trials and if they do, then that probably means that they have plenty of time and this probably translates to that they have few, if any students. Your radar should be up if this is the case.

There is another method of getting good singing lessons. In the age of the internet, many competent singing teachers are marketing their services online. Many even recorded their lessons on CDs so that students can practice their singing anytime and anywhere in the world.

As these teachers market their singing lessons online, you will be able to check their competency, credibility, surf their reviews as well as contact some of their students to verify their testimonials.

Of course, it would be ideal if you could find a competent teacher for one on one coaching. However, if traveling, distance, time and expensive singing lessons are issues to you, then getting pre-recorded singing lessons from a proven singing teacher is a less expensive but equally effective alternative.

Chris Chew owns music education websites at Learn How Sing Like A Pro and How To Play Lead Guitar Like Rock Guitarists