William Randolph "Cozy" Cole was born October 17, 1909 in East Orange, New Jersey. By 1928 he was already an accomplished drummer and got into the music business starting a long string of playing the sideman for various artists and bandleaders, starting with Wilbur Sweatman. In 1930 he was playing for Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, 1931-33 was with Blanche Calloway, 1933-34 was Benny Carter, 1935-36 was Willie Bryant, 1936-38 was Stuff Smith, and 1938-42 was Cab Calloway. In 1942, he got hired by name by legendary CBS Radio music director Raymond Scott to be a part of network radio's first integrated orchestra, making Cole the first black network radio musician. Scott would later remark that "Cozy was the most professional musician I've ever worked with." which is saying something from a bandleader known to be hard to work for. In 1944, he would join Benny Goodman, co-leading a small group at the Onyx Club in New York.
It was around this 1944 timeframe that Cozy started his own small band, sometimes listed as Cozy Cole and his Orchestra and other times listed as Cozy Cole's All Stars. Most of the band's recordings took place in the mid 1940's. He recorded on multiple labels like MGM, Continental, Keynote, Coral, Guild, King, Decca and like today's song on Savoy. Somewhere in this time frame he also found time to go study at Julliard and learn under the New York Philharmonic's Saul Goodman, and if that wasn't enough, he began playing with Louis Armstrong's All Stars (Cole's All Stars band name came later and I'm thinking I know why...).
It wasn't uncommon for Cole to organize European tours with American greats like Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines. In 1953, he and fellow drummer Gene Krupa, formed the Krupa and Cole Drum School in New York which lasted until Krupa's death in 1973. Cole would have a couple hits in the 1950's with "Topsy II" which became a million seller, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hitting No. 1 on the R&B charts. Other hits included "Topsy", "Jersey Jump-Off" and "Night Wind". 1956 saw him take a brief cameo in the film "Don't Knock The Rock". In the 1960's, he reunited with former bandmate Jonah Jones whom he played with under Stuff Smith and Cab Calloway and toured and recorded together, remaining active until the 1970's. He would pass away in Columbus, Ohio in 1981.
This song is one of the first with his newly formed band, being recorded on March 13, 1944. The talent on this recording is as follows: obviously Cozy on drums, Johnny Guarnieri on piano, Teddy Walters on guitar, Billy Taylor on bass, Ben Webster on saxophone, Ray Coniff on trombone, and Lammor Wright on trumpet.
18 май 2024
