Edwin LeMar "Buddy" Cole (December 15, 1916 – November 5, 1964) was a jazz pianist, organist, orchestra leader, and composer. He played behind a number of pop singers, including Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby.
Biography
Cole was born in Irving, Illinois, on December 15, 1916[1] and the family moved to California when he was two. One of his two sisters - Bertie - played for silent movies and Buddy would watch as a little boy. At the age of ten, he debuted on the theater piano, filling in for someone who had not turned up.[2] He started his musical career in the theater playing between movies[1] and his first keyboard job was as theater organist at Los Angeles' Figueroa Theater.[3] He was recruited to be part of Gil Evans's band at the age of 19.[4] In Hollywood in the second half of the 1930s Cole played in dance bands, including those led by Alvino Rey and Frankie Trumbauer.[1] He married Yvonne King, member of The King Sisters, in 1940[5] and they had two daughters, Christine and Cathleen. They divorced in 1953.[6] He married Regina Woodruff[7] (known as Clare) on November 12, 1955 in Las Vegas but they separated on July 6, 1956 prior to a divorce on September 20 the same year.[8] As soon as the divorce became final, Cole and Clare remarried in Los Angeles on November 12, 1957.[9] From the 1940s, his main work was as a studio musician, utilizing piano, electric organ, celeste, harpsichord and Novachord.[1]
^Gramophone 2003- Volume 81 - Page 122 "Crosby brought a jazzman's phrasing and sense of improvisation to much of what he did, whether in the company of Armstrong or a non-specialist jazz group like the Buddy Cole Trio whose album, New Tricks, exemplifies his relaxed approach...
^Whitehead, Kevin (2020). Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film. Oxford University Press. pp. 97–100. ISBN978-0-19-084757-9.