Freddy Cole born October 15, 1931

Lionel Frederick Cole (October 15, 1931 – June 27, 2020) was an American jazz singer and pianist whose recording career spanned almost 70 years. He was the brother of musicians Nat King Cole, Eddie Cole, and Ike Cole, father of Lionel Cole, and uncle of Natalie Cole and Carole Cole.

Freddy Cole was born to Rev. Edward J. Coles and Perlina (née Adams) Coles, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His brothers Nat "King" Cole (1919–1965), Eddie (1910–1970), and Ike (1927–2001) also each pursued careers in music. He began playing piano at the age of six, 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 began playing and singing in Chicago clubs as a teenager. Although he was ready to hit the road at 18, his mother intervened and he continued his musical education at the Roosevelt Institute in Chicago. Cole moved to New York in 1951, where he studied at the Juillard School of Music before earning his master's degree at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Following his education, he spent several months on the road as a member of an Earl Bostic band that also included Johnny Coles and Benny Golson. 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. His influences included John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson and Billy Eckstine. When speaking of Eckstine, Cole recalled: "He was a fantastic entertainer. I learned so much from just watching and being around him."

                                        

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.

Cole was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2007. Guitarist Randy Napoleon, who played and recorded with Cole from 2007 until Cole's death, said: "Freddy just glides through life. He's got a lot of patience, warmth, a great sense of humor. The music is really inseparable from the person...One of the things that makes Freddy really great is his elegance and careful, judicious editing. He doesn't play a lot of notes on piano, but the ones he plays really do make the band feel great. They're melodic, it swings, and that's it. He doesn't feel you need a lot of extra, fancy stuff." In July 2009, he released a recording featuring his own quartet (guitarist Randy Napoleon, drummer Curtis Boyd, and bassist Elias Bailey), along with tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon and pianist John DiMartino, playing live at Dizzy's jazz club in Lincoln Center.

With 2010's Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B, he paid homage to long-time friend and fellow Chicago-bred baritone Billy Eckstine. The album features tenor Houston Person, pianist John DiMartino, guitarist and arranger Randy Napoleon, drummer Curtis Boyd, and bassist Elias Bailey. The album earned Cole his third Grammy nomination. Also in 2010, his publicist Al Gomes scored Cole his first national TV appearance in years, performing live on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. 

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. His 2018 album, My Mood is You was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album; the album features Napoleon, Bailey, DiMartino as well as drummer Quentin Baxter and tenor Joel Frahm. Arrangements are by Napoleon and DiMartino.

Freddy Cole died on June 27, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia, due to complications from cardiovascular disease; he was 88 years old.

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)