
With his warm, velvety sound, singer and pianist Freddy Cole has
earned a reputation as an urbane performer whose music is the
epitome of straight-ahead jazz and R&B. Initially breaking
through with his 1953 hit "Whispering Grass," Cole drew favorable
comparisons to (and spent much of his early career in the shadow
of) his older brother, singer Nat King Cole. However, since issuing
1990's I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me, he has enjoyed a latter-career
resurgence, releasing a bevy of well-regarded albums and picking up
four Grammy nominations, including for 2000's Merry Go-Round,
2010's Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B, and 2018's My Mood Is You. Born
Lionel Frederick Cole in 1931, Cole grew up in Chicago, Illinois
where his minister father and musically inclined mother encouraged
him to start playing piano around age five. As with his
piano-playing older brothers, Ike Cole and Nat King Cole, Freddy
Cole excelled at music, and by his teens was already a gifted
performer. Along with piano, he was also a talented football
player. However, after sustaining a sports-related injury in high
school, he decided to focus on a career in music. He honed his
skills first at Chicago's Roosevelt Institute, and then at the
Juilliard School of Music in New York before earning his master's
degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. Following his
education, he made his recorded debut with the 1952 single "The
Joke's on Me" for the obscure Chicago-based Topper Records. His
next single, "Whispering Grass," on Columbia's OKeh label, was a
moderate hit in 1953, after which he spent several months on the
road alongside Johnny Coles and Benny Golson in the Earl Bostic
Band. In 1964, he made his full-length debut with Waiter, Ask the
Man to Play the Blues on Dot, backed by bassist Milt Hinton and
drummer Osie Johnson. Over the next decade, Cole stayed busy
issuing a run of albums, including titles like 1976's As Long as
I'm Singing, 1978's One More Love Song, and 1980's Right from the
Heart. He also founded his own First Shot label. In 1990, he
returned to more regular recording with I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me,
a sophisticated trio date featuring guitarist Ed Zad and bassist
Eddie Edwards. The album marked a career resurgence for the
singer/pianist, whose profile continued to rise over the next
several years with efforts like 1993's This Is Life, 1997's To the
Ends of the Earth, and 1999's Le Grand Freddy. By 2000, Cole had
signed with Telarc and released Merry-Go-Round, for which he earned
a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. He followed it up
with the Latin-tinged Rio de Janeiro Blue in 2001 and In the Name
of Love in 2003, the latter of which featured an approach to soft
pop hits made famous by Smokey Robinson, Bonnie Raitt, and Van
Morrison, among others. In 2004, GRP reissued his 1964 recording
Waiter, Ask the Man to Play the Blues. Cole returned to the
Highnote label for several well-received albums including 2005's
This Love of Mine and 2006's Because of You. Also in 2006, he
gained further attention as the subject of the documentary film The
Cole Nobody Knows. He also earned a second Grammy nomination for
2007's Music Maestro Please. With 2010's Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B,
he paid homage to longtime friend and fellow Chicago-bred baritone
Billy Eckstine. The album earned Cole his third Grammy nomination.
A year later, he returned with Talk to Me featuring guitarist Randy
Napoleon, saxophonist Harry Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and
others. Two years later, he issued This and That, followed by
Singing the Blues in 2014. He then paid tribute to his late brother
Nat King Cole with 2016's He Was the King. The Grammy-nominated My
Mood Is You arrived in 2018 and featured contributions from
saxophonist Joel Frahm, guitarist Randy Napoleon, and others. ~
Matt Collar