2015 claimed the lives of several major figures in music, some of whom (B.B. King, Clark Terry, Ornette Coleman, Phil Woods, and Allen Toussaint) were remembered in this blog and in Jazz a la Mode. New Year’s Day’s news that Natalie Cole died on the last day of the year was as unwelcome as the others, and sadder than most. Cole had been through the ringer of addiction, and notwithstanding a long period of recovery, she continued to suffer grave health consequences, including hepatitis C and a kidney transplant.
I’ve long known people who knew Natalie during her years as a student at the Northfield School (now Northfield-Mount Herman) in the mid-sixties, and at UMass, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology in 1972. While Natalie, who was “Sweetie” to Nat and Marie Cole, first appeared on record with her father in 1957, it was during her years in Amherst that she began taking occasional gigs as a singer of her own songs. She went on to build one of the most successful careers in contemporary music, and no matter what the genre, everything she sang sounded to me like love.
Natalie was raised Episcopalian, but she was a Baptist at heart, and she converted in the late seventies through the influence of her Cole family cousins in Chicago and her first husband. Like Bob Dylan, whom she addresses here as “Mr. D,” she battled demons and found redemption in service. Dylan recorded “Gotta Serve Somebody” in 1979 on his born-again album, Slow Train Coming. Cole sang it in Sunday morning terms on her spiritual-oriented 1999 album, Snowfall on the Sahara.
Bonnie Raitt posted this tribute on her Facebook page on Saturday. “I’m so saddened to hear of Natalie Cole’s passing. She was a truly incredible singer and such a warm and classy woman. We shared a deep connection with music, our Dads and our history in recovery. We will treasure your memory and your music forever, dear Nat. — Bonnie”