Time: 52:02
Size: 119.1 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2018
Art: Front
[5:43] 1. My Mood Is You
[4:52] 2. Temptation
[5:37] 3. Almost In Love
[5:42] 4. I’ll Always Leave The Door A Little Open
[6:19] 5. First Began
[4:32] 6. They Didn’t Believe Me
[6:29] 7. My Heart Tells Me
[5:10] 8. The Lonely One
[4:16] 9. Love Like This Can’t Last
[3:18] 10. Marie
Freddy Cole, vocals; John di Martino, piano; Joel Frahm, soprano & tenor saxophones; Randy Napoleon, guitar; Elias Bailey, bass; Quentin Baxter, drums.
Very few artists stay at the top of their game for their entire career. However, Freddy Cole’s velvet unhurried singing style remains every bit as cool and hip as it was when his first record was released in 1964. Pianist John di Martino, bassist Elias Bailey, guitarist Randy Napoleon and drummer Quentin Baxter, are trusted associates of Cole who respond to his inimitable sense of swing with now intuitive assurance. Guest saxophonist Joel Frahm displays a sympathetic style that puts him in league with such earlier illustrious Cole saxophone allies as Houston Person and David “Fathead” Newman. Time has been kind to Freddy Cole, who is currently singing with the vitality and zest of a man half his age. His seasoned voice is as affecting as ever, his understanding of a song's expressive anatomy never more incisive. His unimpeachable artistry, rather than longevity, is what positions him as today's vocal jazz master.
Very few artists stay at the top of their game for their entire career. However, Freddy Cole’s velvet unhurried singing style remains every bit as cool and hip as it was when his first record was released in 1964. Pianist John di Martino, bassist Elias Bailey, guitarist Randy Napoleon and drummer Quentin Baxter, are trusted associates of Cole who respond to his inimitable sense of swing with now intuitive assurance. Guest saxophonist Joel Frahm displays a sympathetic style that puts him in league with such earlier illustrious Cole saxophone allies as Houston Person and David “Fathead” Newman. Time has been kind to Freddy Cole, who is currently singing with the vitality and zest of a man half his age. His seasoned voice is as affecting as ever, his understanding of a song's expressive anatomy never more incisive. His unimpeachable artistry, rather than longevity, is what positions him as today's vocal jazz master.
My Mood Is You mc
My Mood Is You zippy
Took me a while to figure this one out, but this is not a rerelease of already time-tested Freddy Cole material. This is an all new album from FC, now in his late 80s! Wow! The blurb about the album here on SD is coy – whether out of negligence or delicacy, I cannot imagine. But, for those who may not know, Freddy Cole is Nat King Cole’s brother. Has he always been better than Nat King Cole as Aurora Miranda was always, at least arguably, better than her more famous sister Carmen? I wouldn’t say yes to that unequivocally. Nat was certainly, far and away, the one with the more immediately identifiable style and quirks. Catch a second or two of Nat on the radio, or elsewhere, and you know immediately who it is. Freddy could be any of a dozen performers or more, if you could identify him in passing at all. But Freddy has always seemed to me in a way the more classic of the two. He does the music. He does not batter you over the head with his stagy Big Star peculiarities. Very nice album, this one. Confess I still look forward, though, to hearing what he does a decade from now when at last in his late 90s his voice may have developed an old guy’s croak. I like the old voices. The voice here could as easily be the voice of a man in mid-career.
ReplyDeleteFreddy Cole, the jazz singer and pianist with a career of nearly 70 years, has died. He was 88.
ReplyDeleteThe cause of death was complications from a cardiovascular ailment, his manager Suzi Reynolds told the Washington Post.
Known for his bluesy voice and swinging style, Cole spent much of his career in the shadow of his older brother Nat King Cole, but he later carved out his own prestigious path with accolades that include four Grammy nominations.
Born in Chicago on Oct. 15, 1931, Freddy Cole was the youngest of five children. He moved to New York in 1951 to attend the Julliard School of Music, before completing a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. Among his musical influences were Oscar Peterson, John Lewis, Teddy Wilson and Billy Eckstine.
Cole released his first album in 1952 and had a minor hit the following year with the song Whispering Glass while gradually gaining notice on the New York club circuit. In 1972, he moved to Atlanta, which he called home for the remainder of his life.
After many years of relative obscurity compared to his famous older brother, Cole’s breakout came at the age of 60, when he made an assertive statement in the form of the 1991 record I’m Not My Brother, I’m Me. He had another break when he appeared on Grover Washington Jr.’s 1994 album All My Tomorrows.
From there, Cole recorded more than 20 albums over a quarter-century, and the Grammy nominations followed.
His first Grammy nod came in 2000 for the album Merry Go Round, followed by nominations for Music Maestro Please in 2007, Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B in 2010, and My Mood Is You in 2018.
Cole was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Thank you Yara!
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