Evan Tyrone Martin brings the voice of Nat King Cole to life

By Hailey Stangebye

Goosebumps.

When Evan Tyrone Martin took the stage at the Lincoln Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 9. to perform An Unforgettable Nat King Cole Christmas, I knew the audience (myself included) was in for a great show. What I didn’t expect was that this Christmas concert would actually be a heartfelt journey through the lives of both Nat King Cole and Evan Tyrone Martin. Like I said, goosebumps.

Not only did Evan Tyrone Martin capture the tonality and sentiment of Nat King Cole’s sound, but he also captured the story behind Cole’s voice through the lens of Martin’s life experiences.

Not only did Evan Tyrone Martin capture the tonality and sentiment of Nat King Cole’s sound, but he also captured the story behind Cole’s voice through the lens of Martin’s life experiences.

Growing up, Martin says that he spent hours in his grandmother’s basement listening to record after record. Among those many tunes were the silky sounds of Nat King Cole. And, like Cole, Martin grew up as the son of a preacher. 

In the middle of the show, Martin paused to share that his father, who had been his greatest cheerleader and inspiration, passed away earlier this year. The audience hung on the silence that swelled after the closing of that story until the band slowly began the next tune, which Martin dedicated to his father. It was a heartwarming rendition of “Unforgettable.”

As the show began to draw to a close, students from the Columbus Children’s Theatre stepped onto the stage to perform a few Christmas tunes. The entire production was orchestrated to help raise funds for the children’s theatre — a cause Martin wholeheartedly supports.

The Chicago Sun-Times called Martin “a golden-voiced actor of sweetness and grace.” That description certainly held true for Sunday’s production. Martin’s rendition of Nat King Cole’s classics was nothing short of a delight.