Orange Colored Sky - As Heard on “Fallout” (Series)

Nat King Cole played the piano as if time did not exist. In To the Ends of the Earth —the remastered version— that gift is evident in every note, but there is something more: the song sounds like a journey without haste, where Cole's voice glides over chords that seem to float. It is not just jazz; it is that moment when classical music, gospel, and swing blend effortlessly, as if they were always meant to meet.

He was born in Montgomery, but his childhood in Chicago left an indelible mark on him. His mother played the organ at the Baptist Church, and his father, a deacon, taught him that music could be both devotion and art. He learned piano from her, without teachers, and in the clubs of Bronzeville —where jazz roared in the 1920s— he listened to legends like Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines. Inspired by Hines, Cole formed his first band as a teenager, and in 1936 recorded his first album with his brother Eddie on bass. The nickname "King" was given to him on a Chicago stage, but it was in Long Beach, after a tour with Eubie Blake, where he decided to stay. There, between the California sun and the echo of jazz, he found the sound that would define him.