Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B (HighNote Records)
Freddy Cole
Released August 3, 2010
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2011
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About:
Freddy Cole is an engaging and accomplished performer, telling musical stories in a warm, experienced voice which is sometimes reminiscent of older brother Nat. For over 50 years, Cole has known how to make an audience and a listener feel comfortable and the know-how is all here on his sixth HighNote release. Freddy often cites the great Billy Eckstine as a major influence on his style and performing the repertoire of the older singer on this wonderful CD has inspired him to some of his best work. With Houston Person augmenting his regular band and Freddy’s autumnal baritone, expressive phrasing and insightful way with a lyric out in front, these performers are the perfect choice for these songs forever associated with “Mr. B,” Billy Eckstine.
Track Listing:
1. Tender Is the Night (Sammy Fain / Paul Francis Webster) 5:46
2. Cottage for Sale (W. Robison) 4:20
3. Portrait 5:28
4. I Apologize (Al Goodhart / A. Hoffman / E. Nelson) 4:31
5. Jelly Jelly (Billy Eckstine / Earl Hines) 5:17
6. Somehow (Mort Maser) 4:55
7. To Be or Not to Be in Love (William Norvas) 3:11
8. Pretty One (Billy Eckstine) 6:14
9. Ma, She’s Makin’ Eyes at Me (Sidney Clare / C. Conrad) 4:12
10. The High and the Mighty (Dimitri Tiomkin / Ned Washington) 4:37
11. No Orchids for My Lady (Jack Strachey / Alan Stranks) 6:05
12. Mister, You’ve Gone and Got the Blues (Billy Eckstine / B. Russell) 6:03
Personnel:
Freddy Cole: vocals
Houston Person: tenor saxophone
John di Martino: piano
Randy Napoleon: guitar
Elias Bailey: bass
Curtis Boyd: drums
Recorded May 2 – 3, 2010, at Avatar Studios, New York, NY Producer: Todd Barkan
Executive producer: Joe Fields
Assistant producer, recording engineer, mixing: Katherine Miller
Mastering: Alan Silverman
Photography: Clay Walker
Review:
Throughout his career, Freddy Cole has striven to maintain a style and tone that don’t echo that of his older sibling, Nat, too closely, once even recording an album called I’m Not My Brother, I’m Me (although Freddy did his proclamation a disservice by cutting that album with a trio not unlike Nat’s early configuration and including a Nat medley). Still, the familial resemblance has been undeniable, and even several decades after his own debut and the death of Nat, Freddy Cole’s music sometimes can’t help but bring to mind the more famous relative. Nonetheless, one shouldn’t read too much into Freddy Cole’s decision to record an album of songs associated with Billy Eckstine, rather than a tribute to Nat King Cole. Like Freddy, Eckstine was a Chicago-bred baritone and the two were close friends from the time Freddy was a youngster (Eckstine often visited the Cole house) up until Eckstine’s death in 1993. The influence of Eckstine upon Cole has been significant and well documented, and this collection provides a golden opportunity to understand just how much Cole has absorbed from Eckstine without resorting to imitating him. A case in point is Cole’s reading of “Jelly Jelly,” which Eckstine co-wrote and first sang with Earl Hines in 1940. Eckstine’s take is grittier, a vibrato-infused crawling blues that naturally befits the time and place it was recorded. Cole’s remake is no less authentic, although not as jagged and more pop-oriented, more apropos of a seasoned veteran of nearly 80 interpreting what is essentially a period piece for a modern audience. Any affectations that might tie the tune to a more ribald origin are eliminated or smoothed over — the new version would be at home in any sophisticated contemporary nightclub populated by patrons who might be scared off by the streetwise Eckstine-Hines approach. “Cottage for Sale,” a hit for Eckstine in the mid-’40s, is here given a casual, shuffling ballad treatment, Cole’s voice revealing the slightest cracks as he unveils the story line, sympathetically accompanied by his regular band of John DeMartino (piano), Randy Napoleon (guitar), Elias Bailey(bass), and Curtis Boyd (drums), with Houston Person joining on tenor saxophone on most tracks. For “Ma, She’s Makin’ Eyes at Me,” Cole dismisses all but Bailey for the first minute, focusing the light on his snappy, coolly swinging vocal until the others are allowed to join in. Similarly, the album’s closer, “Mister, You’ve Gone and Got the Blues,” leaves it up to guitarist Napoleon to provide the shape to Cole’s vocal during its first third, before it all opens up. Overall, Cole succeeds in his mission to remind us of the greatness of Billy Eckstine, but at the same time he reminds us that Freddy Cole, too, is and always has been his own man.
Jeff Tamarkin (AllMusic)
