Eddie Cole

Eddie Cole was an American jazz musician also known as Edward Bennett Coles. He was the older brother of the famous jazz and pop legend Nat “King” Cole. He was born in 1910 in Montgomery, Alabama, as the first child of Reverend Edward J. Cole and Perlina Adams. Eddie Cole moved to Chicago with his family in 1923, where he studied both piano and bass.

By the time he was 17, he had organized his own band. Eddie Cole had the opportunity to work with his younger brother Nat “King” Cole during the late '30s and recorded his first credited records as a bandleader in association with Nat “King” Cole’s late-'30s group, the Rogues of Rhythm. Eddie Cole played alongside greats such as Sidney Bechet and Clarence Brereton while he was a member of Noble Sissle’s band, the Sizzling Syncopators.

After leaving Sissle’s band following a tour of Europe in 1936, Eddie Cole joined his brother’s group, the Rogues of Rhythm, with whom he recorded under their name and also several sides credited to Eddie Cole’s Solid Swingers. Eddie Cole relocated to Philadelphia after World War II, where he organized a new group called the Three Loose Nuts and a Bolt.

Later on, he renamed his band Eddie Cole & His Gang. In the second half of the 1950s, Eddie Cole moved to Los Angeles and formed a piano/vocal duo called the Two Hot Coles with his wife Betty King. They were among the earliest artists signed to Warner Bros. label at the end of the 1950s. Eddie Cole took on a role in Warner Bros. television detective series Bourbon Street Beat in 1959, playing the Baron, a pianist at a New Orleans club around which the action took place.

Eddie Cole retired during the 1960s and passed away in 1970 at the age of 68. You can find more information about Eddie Cole on AllMusic or Alabama Music Hall of Fame.