Sad to hear of the death of Freddy Cole at the age of 88. There are few details so far but the traditional jazz site The Syncopated Times has reported his death. A fine crooner, the brother of Nat King Cole he was a frequent visitor to London and often played the Pizza Express Jazz Club. I only heard him once back in 2010 playing the Soho club and as as I wrote in Jazzwise at the time it was an evening of wonderful songs delivered in a style few could ever hope to match. The two sets included songs from his High Note albums The Dreamer In Me: Live At Dizzy’s Club and the new Freddy Cole Sings Mr B [as in Eckstine]. Billy Eckstine’s big band in the 1940s featured a who’s who of great jazz musicians including famously Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie with Sarah Vaughan adding vocals and top arrangers such as Tadd Dameron writing the charts. Freddy was a class act and will be much missed.
Tags: