Jazz Articles about Richie Cole

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Richie Cole: A Wiser But Still Swingin' Soul

by Samuel Chell
July 12, 2007

“Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go." (William Shakespeare)

Alto saxophonist Richie Cole is the last of a breed--a fast and competitive musical gunslinger acquiring near-legendary status for his willingness to demonstrate his command of Charlie Parker's bebop language by taking on all comers at any speed--Billy the Kid packing an alto instead of a revolver.

The ready availability of Cole's recorded shoot-out with the indomitable Sonny Stitt (Just In Case You Forgot How Bad He Really ...

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Richie Cole and the Alto Madness Orchestra: Rise's Rose Garden

by C. Michael Bailey
November 9, 2006

Risë's Rose Garden is a compelling, if not profound, statement of Richie Cole's vision of “Alto Madness, the saxophonist's respectful allusion to the Sonny Rollins/John Coltrane lower reed affliction. The disc was recorded in the wake of Cole's wife's death last year--and if, as paraphrased by the late Will Durant, the greatest beauty is begat of heartbreak, then Risë's Rose Garden exists as a temporal definition of this process.

Like many of Cole's Alto Madness recordings, particularly those with larger ...

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Richie Cole and the Alto Madness Orchestra: Rise's Rose Garden

by Jack Bowers
October 21, 2006

There's often more in a package of music than meets the eye--or ear. I don't know how difficult it must have been for saxophonist Richie Cole to produce this album, but I can imagine. The Risë in the title is Cole's wife, who passed away last April, only a few weeks before the album was recorded. Risë Cole was fifty years old. One of Risë's--and Richie's--greatest pleasures lay in tending the rose garden that surrounded their home in Ewing Township, ...

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Richie Cole: Then & Now

by C. Michael Bailey
May 30, 2006

Saxophonist Richie Cole perfected the art of turning all tunes, no matter their origin, into be-bop, thus perfecting what Charlie Parker started when he launched into his now famous recording of “Embraceable You. Two simultaneously released albums, recorded twenty three years apart, show off Cole's talents to powerful effect.

Richie Cole and Art Pepper Richie Cole Meets Art Pepper: A Piece Of Jazz History Jazz Excursion 2006

Originally released on ...

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Richie Cole & The Alto Madness Orchestra: Back On Top

by Michael P. Gladstone
October 4, 2005

It is gratifying to find that altoist Richie Cole, one of the major jazz personalities of the 1970s, is still playing at the same high level on this album, which marks his 25th date as a leader. After lengthy contracts with Muse and Palo Alto Records, his albums since the 1990s have been relatively infrequent.

The Alto Madness Orchestra is something of a misnomer, inasmuch as there are only four horns in this septet. In his liner notes, ...

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Cole, Blanchard, Bennett in Philly

by AAJ Staff
September 9, 2005

A trio of major jazz stars (Richie Cole, Terence Blanchard and Tony Bennett) are brightening up the Philly jazz scene over the next two weeks. CHRIS' JAZZ CAFE September 2 had Richie Cole and his Alto Madness Orchestra with a party gig for his new CD Back On Top. Cole told us, “I always like playing Chris', it's one of my favorite jazz clubs; it's the real deal and that “Philadelphia is a real jazz town where a lot of ...

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Richie Cole: Back on Top

by Jack Bowers
August 27, 2005

While I'm never pleased when someone calls a septet an orchestra, I must concede that alto saxophonist Richie Cole's new album, Back on Top, quickly captured my heart, enabling me to lay that grievance aside and focus on the music, which is consistently upbeat and enjoyable. And thanks to Cole's clever charts, the ensemble does seem larger than its seven-piece makeup. He says he has written more than five thousand compositions for the band, and the biggest challenge he faced ...