Holly Cole
Recognized for her intelligent approach and sensual delivery, Canadian songstress Holly (Jean) Cole was born in Halifax, NS, 25 Nov 1963. The daughter of long- time CBC Radio host Leon Cole and arts administrator Carolyn Cole, Holly Cole developed her singing career in Toronto in the mid-1980s, a particularly rich time in the city's music scene.
She studied jazz vocal technique 1982-4 at Humber College. Her earliest work was in support of Toronto- based groups Canadien Club, Whitenoise, Parachute Club and Vital Sines. She formed her own trio, with pianist Aaron Davis and bassist David Piltch, in 1986 and quickly established herself with her distinctive smoky contralto voice and slightly arch stage persona. She was especially popular in Japan, where her 1992 single Calling You was a top-10 hit.
Cole was in the vanguard of a resurgence of female jazz singers who interpreted contemporary pop songs. Her recordings after 1995 were more firmly in the pop vein, with songs composed by Sheryl Crow, Randy Newman and Paul Simon.
Holly Cole maintained a long relationship with Toronto's Alert Music, which licensed many of her recordings to other companies for international distribution. In 1989 Cole's trio released an EP, “Christmas Blues,” and quickly followed it with her first full-length release, “Girl Talk,” which was re-released internationally in 1994.
In 1991 Cole signed her first major distribution deal with the seminal jazz label Blue Note Records and released “Blame It on My Youth,” from which her first Japanese hit was taken. “Don't Smoke in Bed,” from 1993 followed a similar formula and yielded another strong single, a languid remake of Jamaican singer Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now. In 1995 she varied her approach, adding more than a dozen musicians to her trio for “Temptation,” an album of songs by Tom Waits. That year she also recorded a single, Oscar Brown Jr's Hum Drum Blues, for a Blue Note compilation with a number of first-rate jazz players, including pianist Mulgrew Miller, saxophonist Javon Jackson and drummer Bill Stewart, which indicated the label's efforts to legitimize her as a jazz artist.
Read moreTags
Album Review
- The Best of Holly Cole by AAJ Staff
- Romantically Helpless by Mathew Bahl
- The Best Of Holly Cole by AAJ Staff
- The Best Of Holly Cole by Jim Santella
August 05, 2008
18th Annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival: Holly Cole, Lafayette Gilchrist and...
May 20, 2008
Holly Cole at World Cafe Live on May 27, 2008
November 15, 2006
Holly Cole "A Night Before Christmas" Concert at the House of Blues
Photos
Albums
Watch
Similar

piano

voice / vocals

piano

voice / vocals

saxophone, alto

bass, acoustic

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

piano

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

voice / vocals

piano