Keeping Nat’s spirit alive

By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Times Staff Writer

Employees who exceed expectations might get a plaque or parking space for their efforts. Darrell Cole, however, received a singing career.
When he worked as a bus driver for G.S.S. Travel & Tours in Tacony, the future Nat King Cole tribute artist took customer service to astronomic levels. Knowing that half the fun is getting there, Cole — Darrell, that is — decked out his ride with season-appropriate trees, flowers, fountains, lights and pictures. The most notable feature of Cole’s tour bus was the rich and velvety voice that trilled out of his mouth as he sang, and he sang a lot.
He sang as he drove. He sang when the bus made rest stops. He sang as he unpacked the bus and helped his passengers step down.
Passengers began to forget about the Baltimore Seaport or Memphis’s Graceland — the destination no longer mattered. Requests for Cole flooded the G.S.S. office, and Cole continued to sing.
One day at the Indian Head Resort in Lincoln, N.H., an excited passenger got an idea as Cole was singing. Cole found himself shaking hands with the hotel manager and agreeing to perform at the resort during the weeklong tour.
"The whole week everyone called me ‘Nat,’" said Cole, whose venues have moved up the ranks to include Rockefeller Center in New York City and the posh Estrel Hotel in Berlin, Germany.
Never formally schooled in the vocal arts, Darrell Cole went right to the "stages" of his Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood block parties and birthday bashes. Some stages even beckoned from out of town. When he was 6, Cole channeled soul singer James Brown in an impromptu performance at a televised show on an Atlantic City pier.
Though he wouldn’t officially imitate Nat King Cole until well into his own singing career, Cole’s fascination with the legend was stoked by his grandmother’s insistence on playing the crooner’s music every day. Revolutionary for his time, the jazz pianist and singer/songwriter stood up for civil rights and made history as the first black musician to have his own weekly radio show, and, later, his own weekly television program. The jazz/pop /ballad styles of his music have been credited as an early influence on the rock ’n’ roll revolution that burst to life just as King Cole died of lung cancer in February 1965, a month before his 46th birthday.
Darrell Cole considers his idol a "hearts-and-flowers romantic," not much different than himself. "He can take you into deep jazz or the love songs," noted Cole, "and it becomes all you want to hear."
The dream lay dormant for a time as Cole pursued his studies at Hampton University in Virginia. Unexpectedly, his journalism major provided a venue for his voice when he moved back to the Delaware Valley after graduation. He concurrently worked part-time at a radio station in Vineland, N.J., and full time as a SEPTA bus driver. The grueling routine became the launching pad for his success.
After a 15-year stint at SEPTA, he quit and joined G.S.S. in 1995. His loyal passengers, tough critics who weren’t about to settle for just any Nat King Cole tribute artist, were his biggest supporters.
"They were always pushing me," said Cole, who certainly didn’t mind. "Opportunity seemed to follow me everywhere."
Vegas, the official playground for tribute artists, beckoned in the form of a serendipitous meeting with Cindy Harrelson, a Barbra Streisand impersonator and cousin of actor Woody Harrelson. The two met in 2003 at a nightclub, where Harrelson highlighted the evening’s tribute artist line-up. Cole, who bravely approached her for some helpful advice, floored the veteran artist with his personality and ambition.
Said Harrelson: "I thought, ‘He Should Sing!’ I could just feel how focused he was, about his dream and singing."
At Harrelson’s insistence, Cole joined a bevy of fellow professionals a month later at the the Stardust Hotel & Casino, site of the World Convention Showcase presented by the International Guild of Celebrity Impersonators & Tribute Artists.
Darrell Cole found himself the only Nat King Cole in a sea of Frank Sinatras, Tina Turners, Chers and Michael Jacksons. His originality did not go unnoticed by the producers, who shed their characteristic stoicism at the sound of Cole singing Unforgettable.
"Producers do not move, they do not do anything but sit there," said Cole, now familiar with the idiosyncratic psyches so plentiful in the entertainment world. "They do not scream.
"But they screamed."
The loudest screamer was Bernhard Kurz, director and producer of Germany’s renowned tribute artist showcase, Stars in Concert. Kurz invited Cole to Germany to perform as a regular feature at Berlin’s famous Estrel Hotel, touted as Europe’s largest entertainment and convention complex, and the home base for the tribute artists in Stars in Concert.
Life was good. Cole said he saw almost "all of Germany from my suite."
The run lasted three months, and a starry-eyed Cole returned last January to Southwest Philadelphia, where he now works for a different bus tour company and discussing opportunities with producers. In June, performed at the Commerce Bank Amphitheater’s summer nights concert series in Bensalem.
Forty years have passed since the music world lost Darrell Cole’s idol, and the tribute artist carries out the duty of keeping the legend’s music alive. Cole executes his role with all the charisma he had when he rewrote the job description of "tour bus guide."
"It’s non-stop with me and Nat," said Cole. "Every move I make, he’s with me." ••
Learn more about Darrell Cole at www.natkingcolelive.com He is available for parties and special occasions.
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com