William Randolph "Cozy" Cole (October 17, 1909 – January 9, 1981) was an American jazz musician who was a versatile percussionist. A highlight of Cole’s drumming career was the 1958 hit Topsy, the only recording featuring a drum solo to sell more than one million copies.
Cozy" Cole was born in East Orange, NJ, on October 17, 1909. He moved to New York City with his family in 1926 and soon became fascinated with the work of Duke Ellington's percussionist Sonny Greer. By 1928 he was performing with clarinetist and bandleader Wilbur Sweatman, and his first recordings (including the feature number "Load of Cole") were made with Jelly Roll Morton in 1930.After working for several years with Blanche Calloway & Her Joy Boys and the Benny Carter Orchestra, Cole accelerated his involvement in the swarming swing scene, making records with bands led by Willie Bryant and pianist Teddy Wilson and backing vocalists Billie Holiday, Midge Williams, Mildred Bailey, and
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Vocalion's assigned Fats Waller emulator, Putney Dandridge. Cozy Cole assisted with Henry "Red" Allen's original recording of
"Algiers Stomp," and made records with Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman's Windy City Five, Chu Berry's Stompy Stevedores, Stuff Smith's Onyx Club Orchestra, Frankie Newton's Uptown Serenaders, and Lionel Hampton. During the year 1939 he worked with Pete Brown & His Jump Band, Joe Marsala & His Delta Six, Leonard Feather's All-Stars, and one-armed trumpeter Wingy Manone.
Vocalion's assigned Fats Waller emulator, Putney Dandridge. Cozy Cole assisted with Henry "Red" Allen's original recording of "Algiers Stomp," and made records with Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman's Windy City Five, Chu Berry's Stompy Stevedores, Stuff Smith's Onyx Club Orchestra, Frankie Newton's Uptown Serenaders, and Lionel Hampton. During the year 1939 he worked with Pete Brown & His Jump Band, Joe Marsala & His Delta Six, Leonard Feather's All-Stars, and one-armed trumpeter Wingy Manone.
In 1940, Cozy Cole took his decade of experience and descended upon the Cab Calloway Orchestra during that brief period when the extroverted leader, reluctant to surrender the spotlight, begrudgingly assigned instrumental features to his star players. Cole was the main focus of "Ratamacue,""Paradiddle," and "Crescendo in Drums." In 1943 he worked with bandleader Raymond Scott and performed "Beat Out Dat Rhythm
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on a Drum" in the Broadway production of Oscar Hammerstein II's Carmen Jones. While playing in Scott’s band, Cole studied piano, clarinet, vibraphone and percussion at the Juilliard School of Music.
The year 1944 was a triumphant one for Cole, as he led several all-star groups for the Keynote and Savoy labels and served with bands led by trumpeter Roy Eldridge, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, bassist Billy Taylor, and cornetist Rex Stewart. He also sat in with pianist Johnny Guarnieri and saxophonist Lester Young, clarinetist Hank D'Amico, tenor man Walter "Foots" Thomas, and several groups working for the Armed Forces V-Disc project.
In 1957 he accompanied Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines on their tours of Europe. The following year, with his new combo, he got a surprise hits on the pop charts with "Topsy I" and "Topsy II". "Topsy II" peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at No. 1 on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at No. 29 in the UK Singles Chart in
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1958. The recording contained a long drum solo and was one of the few drum solo recordings to make the charts at Billboard magazine. The single was issued by Love Records, a small record label in Brooklyn, New York. Cole's song "Turvy II" reached No. 36 in 1959.
In 1962 the U.S. Department of State sent Cole and his band on a tour of Africa. Cole appeared in music-related films, including a brief cameo in Don't Knock the Rock. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he continued to perform in a variety of settings. Cole and Gene Krupa often played drum duets at the Metropole in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1969 Cole began gigging with his old session mate Jonah Jones and worked with the trumpeter's group intermittently for several years. Late maturity found him jamming at a jazz festival in Nice, France, in 1974 and participating in a Louis Armstrong alumni project under the leadership of Lionel Hampton in 1977. Cozy Cole received an honorary degree from Capital University in Columbus, OH, in 1978, and lectured there periodically for the rest of his life. He died from cancer in Columbus, Ohio, January 1981 at age 71. (Compiled & edited mainly from Wikipedia, britannica.com & All music)