Following the moderate success of "Whispering Grass" on
OKeh Records in 1953 Cole spent several months on the road with
Johnny Coles and
Benny Golson as the
Earl Bostic band. During the 1970s, Cole recorded several albums for European and English-based labels. He went on to work with
Grover Washington, Jr. and to record jingles for various companies, including
Turner Classic Movies He was the subject of the 2006 documentary,
The Cole Nobody Knows. In June of that year, Cole was added to the
Steinway Artist roster. Cole was inducted into the
Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2007. In July 2009, he released a recording featuring his own quartet (guitarist
Randy Napoleon, drummer
Curtis Boyd, and bassist Elias Bailey), along with tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon and pianist John DiMartino, playing live at Dizzy's jazz club in
Lincoln Center. His 2010 album,
Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B, was nominated for the
Grammy in the category
Best Jazz Vocal Album. The album features tenor
Houston Person, pianist John DiMartino, guitarist/arranger Randy Napoleon, drummer Curtis Boyd, and bassist Elias Bailey. In 2010, his publicist
Al Gomes scored Cole his first national TV appearance in years, performing live on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 2018 album,
My Mood is You was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album; the album features Napoleon, Bailey, DiMartino as well as drummer Quentin Baxter and tenor Joel Frahm. Arrangements are by Napoleon and DiMartino. Cole's influences included
John Lewis,
Oscar Peterson,
Teddy Wilson and
Billy Eckstine. When speaking of Eckstine, Cole recalled: "He was a fantastic entertainer. I learned so much from just watching and being around him." Guitarist Randy Napoleon, who has been playing and recording with Cole since 2007, said: "Freddy just glides through life. He's got a lot of patience, warmth, a great sense of humor. The music is really inseparable from the person...One of the things that makes Freddy really great is his elegance and careful, judicious editing. He doesn't play a lot of notes on piano, but the ones he plays really do make the band feel great. They're melodic, it swings, and that's it. He doesn't feel you need a lot of extra, fancy stuff." ==Death==