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Paula Cole
Paula Cole's fourth album, Courage, is about starting over. A more collaborative effort than any of her previous discs, the elegant Courage finds Cole working with a host of writers and players, and balances piano-based pop with her first true musical love: jazz. The album's title, she says, encapsulates just what she needed to pull this record off, as the disc arrives at the end of a soul-searching, and at times soul-crushing period during which she contemplated ending her music career.
But in 2005, when an old acquaintance and producer Bobby Colomby (Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jaco Pastorius, The Jacksons) asked Cole to sing on several tracks on trumpeter Chris Botti's When I Fall In Love album, the joy of music began to return: "When I was singing with him, it was like music was fun again," she says. "I sang a lot of jazz when I was in college�"I wanted to be kind of like a female Chet Baker or something so it was so fun to sing these songs again, to record music live, you know, where you get it in one or two takes, and that's it."
Colomby quickly became "the one who kind of led me out from under the rock," Cole says, noting that he pushed Cole to open herself up creatively like never before. She played less piano, thanks to the likes of Billy Childs, David Foster, Jeff Lorber and Herbie Hancock (who guests on the track, "Lonelytown"), and she co-wrote songs for the first time in her career. She penned with Dean Parks, Mark Goldenberg, Jeremy Lubbock, Patrick Leonard and Jeff Lorber.
"I couldn't be my naturally controlling self," she says. "And I think that was really healthy for me, to not be so precious and controlling and I didn't have to write all these songs and play a million instruments, I could focus more on my singing, and my composing and lyric writing."
In the years between the dissolution of her Warner Bros. deal and the sessions for Courage, Cole struggled with depression, and on the pretty, diary-opener "El Greco," she kind of speaks to that period, as well as this rebirth she's experiencing: "I forgot who I used to be/I forgot the woman in red, living her dream/I forgot the Courage I used to be." That tale of rebirth also weaves itself through songs like "Coming Down" and "Love Light." But on tracks like the delicate "Lonelytown" and the twinkling, boppin', almost bossa nova "Hard to Be Soft" (featuring vocalist Ivan Lins), she lets her jazz roots shine. She bounces between two genres throughout Courage. "Comin' Down," the disc's opener, owes more to the music Cole is known for, and the album ends with a sweeping, string-laden duet with Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile.
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Paula Cole: Courage
by Katrina-Kasey Wheeler
Paula Cole is perhaps one of the greatest jazz voices caught in modern-day times. What most vocalists hope to achieve within their art, Paula Cole can do in one song and, more often than not, in one take. With an ability to showcase seemingly effortless and incredible range and control, Cole has achieved mainstream success, winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist" in 1997, and garnering several platinum records. Cole is back and better than ever with Courage (Decca, ...
read morePaula Cole Joins Voice Department At Berklee College Of Music
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Berklee Media Relations
Berklee College of Music announces that Paula Cole has joined the college's voice department. Cole, a 1990 Berklee graduate, is a Grammy winner and seven- time Grammy nominee who has sold approximately three million albums. She begins her tenure on September 1. I like to think of what I do as a loving gesture of giving back, and teaching is a natural extension of this personal philosophy. I'm grateful and excited to be returning to my Berklee roots and community," ...
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Back To The Garden: The Artistry Of Joni Mitchell, Featuring Paula Cole And Music Directed By Terri Lyne Carrington
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Berklee Public Relations
Berklee College of Music presents Back to the Garden: The Artistry of Joni Mitchell, a play with music and dance about the life and work of the iconic artist, written and performed by Berklee students. Back to the Garden will be performed at Berklee on May 3 with featured guest, Grammy Award-winning alumna Paula Cole, and music directed by Grammy Award-winning alumna Terri Lyne Carrington. The production is directed by Associate Professor Rebecca Perricone. Back to the Garden: The Artistry ...
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Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Danilo Perez Headline Busy Friday Night of Jazz in Boston, September 24
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MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
Boston is brimming with jazz tonight with artists Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Danilo Perez and others in the middle of the city's 10th annual Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival now underway. Trumpeter Chris Botti is performing at the Citi Performing Arts Center, Wang Theatre tonight at 8:00 p.m. Since 2004 he has been the largest selling American jazz instrumentalist in the world. He has performed and recorded with many great artists, including Frank Sinatra, Sting, Michael Buble and Joni Mitchell. Tickets ...
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Vocalist Paula Cole Interviewed at AAJ
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All About Jazz
Paula Cole is perhaps one of the greatest jazz voices caught in modern-day times. What most vocalists hope to achieve within their art, Paula Cole can do in one song and, more often than not, in one take. With an ability to showcase seemingly effortless and incredible range and control, Cole has achieved mainstream success, winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist" in 1997, and garnering several platinum records. Cole is back and better than ever with Courage (Decca, ...
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Halie Loren
vocalsMusic
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson