THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Nat "King" Cole wasn't the only one in
his family to make music as the late singer's youngest brother, 79-year-old
Freddy Cole, will demonstrate Sunday when he performs a Topeka Jazz Workshop
Inc. Concert Series show.
The Freddy Cole Quartet — Cole on piano and vocals,
Randy Napoleon on guitar, Curtis Boyd on drums and Elias Bailey on bass — will
play from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Ramada Hotel and Convention
Center, 420 S.E. 6th.
Admission is by season ticket, which is good for
Sunday's show and nine more in the 2011-12 series. A series subscription can be
purchased with cash or check at the door for $45 for s student 20 or younger or
$100 for everyone else. To review the rest of the season lineup, go to www.topekajazz.comor contact TJW Inc. executive director Marcene
Grimes at mgrimes14@cox.net or (785) 379-5169.
The Cole household in Chicago was a musical one.
Cole's mother played the piano and directed the choir in her husband's Baptist
Church. The eldest brother, bassist Eddie Cole, was leading a band by age 17,
and it was under Eddie's name that Nat recorded some of his first songs. Ike
Cole played drums, and his trio toured internationally. He also lent his
keyboard-playing skills to niece's Natalie Cole's Grammy-winning
"Unforgettable" album.
While music seemed to be the family business, it
wasn't Freddy Cole's initial career choice. As a teenager, he had his sights
set on becoming a running back in the NFL until at 16 he suffered a hand
injury that resulted in a bone infection, a series of surgeries, extensive
physical therapy and a return to music.
He enrolled in Chicago's Roosevelt Institute to
further his musical education, then transferred to the Juilliard School in New
York and went on to earn his master's degree at the New England Conservatory of
Music.
Preceded in death by all three of his brothers,
Freddy Cole later in his life emerged from his late brother Nat's shadow to
establish himself as a jazz great in his own right.
His 2010 album, "Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B
," a tribute to Billy Eckstine, was nominated for the Grammy Award in the
category Best Vocal Jazz Album.
A New York Times critic called him "among the
surviving stalwarts of an oldfangled mode of jazz singing, one that now belongs
mainly to the realm of cabaret. He's a melody man, allergic to undue
embellishment, and his maturity manifests as understatement."
As far as comparisons to his more famous sibling,
the reviewer wrote, "So for the record: he doesn't really sound like Nat,
except when he does."
"Mr. Cole has his own voice, raspier and less
solicitous than his brother's, and his own sort of charisma, with hints of
bluesy gruffness behind the composure," the critic also wrote.
Rather than rest on such laurels, the Atlanta-based
Cole, who turns 80 on Oct. 15, is touring in support of his latest CD,
"Talk to Me," which HighNote released in August and about which some
jazz critics have said could be destined for another Grammy nomination.
Bill Blankenship can be reached at (785) 295-1284
or bill.blankenship@cjonline.com.
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