Buddy Cole (musician)
{{short description|American jazz pianist and orchestra leader}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Buddy Cole
| image =
| caption =
| image_size =
| landscape = yes
| birth_name = Edwin LeMar Cole
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1916|12|15}}
| birth_place = Irving, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1964|11|5|1916|12|15}}
| death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.
| instrument = {{hlist|Piano|organ}}
| genre = {{hlist|Jazz}}
| occupation = Musician
| years_active =
| label =
| associated_acts = {{hlist|Alfredo Ray|Frankie Trumbauer}}
| website =
| current_members =
| past_members =
}}
Edwin LeMar "Buddy" Cole (December 15, 1916 – November 5, 1964) was a jazz pianist, organist, orchestra leader, and composer. He played behind a number of pop singers, including Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby.
Biography
Cole was born in Irving, Illinois, on December 15, 1916{{cite web |last=Chadbourne |first=Eugene |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/buddy-cole-mn0000943312/biography |title=Buddy Cole |website=AllMusic |access-date=May 30, 2020}} and the family moved to California when he was two. One of his two sisters - Bertie - played for silent movies and Buddy would watch as a little boy. At the age of ten, he debuted on the theater piano, filling in for someone who had not turned up.{{cite journal |journal=Films of the Golden Age |date=Summer 2022 |issue=Summer 2022 |page=52}} He started his musical career in the theater playing between movies and his first keyboard job was as theater organist at Los Angeles' Figueroa Theater.{{cite journal |last1=Cornyn |first1=Stan |title=Modern Pipe Organ (sleeve notes) |date=1962}} He was recruited to be part of Gil Evans's band at the age of 19.{{cite book |last=Crease |first=Stephanie Stein |title=Gil Evans: Out of the Cool – His Life and Music |year=2002 |publisher=A Cappella Books |isbn=978-1-55652-425-7 |page=36}} In Hollywood in the second half of the 1930s Cole played in dance bands, including those led by Alvino Rey and Frankie Trumbauer. He married Yvonne King, member of The King Sisters, in 1940{{cite book |last=Tumpak |first=John R. |title=When Swing Was the Thing: Personality Profiles of the Big Band Era |year=2008 |publisher=Marquette University Press |isbn=978-0-87462-024-5 |page=65}} and they had two daughters, Christine and Cathleen. They divorced in 1953.{{cite journal |title=The Los Angeles Times |journal=The Los Angeles Times |date=May 8, 1958 |volume=Local News |page=1}} He married Regina Woodruff{{cite journal |title=Variety |journal=Variety |date=November 23, 1955 |page=63}} (known as Clare) on November 12, 1955 in Las Vegas but they separated on July 6, 1956 prior to a divorce on September 20 the same year.{{cite journal |title=The Spokesman-Review |journal=The Spokesman-Review |date=September 21, 1956 |page=2}} As soon as the divorce became final, Cole and Clare remarried in Los Angeles on November 12, 1957.{{cite journal |title=The Los Angeles Times |journal=The Los Angeles Times |date=November 13, 1957 |volume=Local News |page=1}} From the 1940s, his main work was as a studio musician, utilizing piano, electric organ, celeste, harpsichord and Novachord.
In 1947, Cole joined the John Scott Trotter Orchestra working for Bing Crosby on his radio shows and he remained with Trotter until 1954. Crosby then dispensed with the services of a large orchestra and instead employed Cole and his trio to support him on his radio programs such as The Bing Crosby Show and The Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show.{{cite web |last1=Macfarlane |first1=Malcolm |title=Bing Crosby - Day By Day |url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/ |website=BING magazine |access-date=July 23, 2022}} Cole performed on Bing Crosby's hits "In a Little Spanish Town" and "Ol' Man River", and on the albums Some Fine Old Chestnuts and New Tricks.Gramophone 2003- Volume 81 - Page 122 "Crosby brought a jazzman's phrasing and sense of improvisation to much of what he did, whether in the company of Armstrong or a non-specialist jazz group like the Buddy Cole Trio whose album, New Tricks, exemplifies his relaxed approach... Cole also played on Rosemary Clooney's radio program; some recordings from the show were released on the album Swing Around Rosie.{{cite book |last=Giddins |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Giddins |title=Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515607-2 |page=459}}
In his capacity as a studio musician, Cole worked with Henry Mancini, who used his Hammond organ sound for the soundtrack to the TV series Mr. Lucky. Cole also recorded several organ albums for Warner Brothers, Columbia, Alshire and Doric.
Cole played most of the piano parts in the 1951 film Young Man with a Horn, subbing for Hoagy Carmichael, who appeared on screen.{{cite book |last=Whitehead |first=Kevin |title=Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-084757-9 |pages=97–100}} Cole also wrote the music for the television game show Truth or Consequences. He died in Hollywood on November 5, 1964.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://archive.org/details/BuddyColePipeOrgan-11-20 Buddy Cole recordings] at the Internet Archive
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Buddy}}
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:American male jazz pianists
Category:American music arrangers
Category:American male organists
Category:People from Irving, Illinois
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Category:King family (show business)
Category:20th-century American pianists
Category:20th-century American organists