Holly Cole

Holly Cole

Holly Cole (born November 25, 1963 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian jazz singer, particularly popular in Canada and Japan for both her versatile and distinctive voice, along with her adventurous repertoire, which spans such divergent genres as show tunes, rock, and country music.

Holly Cole Trio

In 1983, Cole travelled to Toronto to seek a musical career. In 1986, she founded a trio with bassist David Piltch and pianist Aaron Davis. Offered a record deal in 1989, the Holly Cole Trio released an EP, Christmas Blues, that year, which featured a version of The Pretenders' "2,000 Miles." This was followed by their first full album, Girl Talk, in 1990.

A succession of releases followed through the early 1990s. For example, 1991's Blame It On My Youth, covered songs by Tom Waits ("Purple Avenue," aka "Empty Pockets"), Lyle Lovett ("God Will"), includes show tunes such as "If I Were a Bell" (from Guys and Dolls) and "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady), and even remakes "Trust In Me," from Disney's The Jungle Book, into a strikingly sultry and sinister song of seduction and death. Also recorded in this period was a reinterpretation of Elvis Costello's "Alison."

Solo career

Following 1993's Don't Smoke In Bed, the trio released a CD entirely of songs by Tom Waits, called Temptation. This 1995 release also dropped the "Trio" from the label.

Cole followed with two albums, Dark Dear Heart (1997) and Romantically Helpless (2000), which veered further from jazz by introducing pop elements to Cole's sound.

In 2001, she returned to the Christmas jazz roots of her first CD with Baby It's Cold Outside, which included "Christmas Time is Here" (from A Charlie Brown Christmas), "Santa Baby", and the title track. Swapping cold for hot, she moved to a summer theme in 2003's Shade, this time reinterpreting Cole Porter ("Too Darn Hot"), Irving Berlin ("Heatwave"), and The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson ("God Only Knows").

Cole's latest album, Holly Cole (originally entitled This House Is Haunted) was released in Canada in March 2007. It was released in the US in January 2008 and was followed by a US tour.

Cole tours frequently, particularly around the holiday season, in Canada. She was also a part of the 1998 Lilith Fair tour, and her song "Onion Girl" was included on that year's live compilation album.

Gallery

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  Photo by Guy MacPherson

Discography

• Christmas Blues (1989)
• Girl Talk (1990) Canada: Gold (50,000)
• Blame It on My Youth (1992) Canada: Gold
• Don't Smoke in Bed (1993) Canada: Platinum (100,000)
• Temptation (1995) Canada: Gold
• It Happened One Night (live, 1996)
• Dark Dear Heart (1997) Canada: Gold
• Treasure (1989-1993) (Limited Edition - Hits and Previously Unreleased Tracks, 1998)
• Romantically Helpless (2000) Canada: Gold
• The Best of Holly Cole (2000)
• Baby, It's Cold Outside (2001)
• Shade (2003)
• Holly Cole Collection Vol.1 (2004)
• Holly Cole (2007)

Associated Projects

• Count Your Blessings (an Alert Records Christmas compilation CD, 1994)
• Feast (instrumental CD by trio members Aaron Davis and David Piltch, 1996)

External links

• Official Holly Cole web site