We remember Nat King Cole (1919 – 1965) and his trips to Cuba

We remember the one and only Nat King Cole, who was born on this day in 1919. He died of cancer in 1965. Like many of you, I grew up with Nat King Cole’s songs on my parents’ turntable. In our case, it was listening to Nat King Cole singing in Spanish. In fact, Cole visited Cuba several times.

We remember one of those visits today:

In the third visit to Tropicana he passed by the record factory PANART, it was during a cocktail party in Hollywood where the president of the record house PANART Ramon Sabat talked Nat into recording an album in Spanish, in San Miguel studios, in Center Havana where 40 years later would be recorded the Buena Vista Social Club album.

It was the first time Nat recorded outside the United States, this time for a branch of the Capitol, the PANART of Cuba. He recorded a LP of twelve songs where he included Cuban songs like Quizas, quizas, quizas, of Osvaldo Farres, El Bodeguero of Richard Egues, Delirio of Cesar Portillo de la Luz, in instrumental, because he was unable to master the phonetics of the song. He was accompanied by the Orchestra of Tropicana directed by Armando Romeu.

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