Tuesday, November 7, 2017

COZY’S MAMBO.




Welcome

Welcome to Cozy Cole’s blistering R&B shaker, “Cozy’s Mambo.” This music will make you dance, jump, and sing. Let’s get on with it, then.

Twenty-five Word Song Review

Were there two drummers? Did Cozy have four arms? He owned a trick drum kit, right? No, No, No. Was he tap-dancing? Oh, yeah!

We Know a Bit about This Song

“Cozy’s Mambo” is an original.

The likely personnel include George Kelly (tenor sax); Gene Redd (vibes); John Thomas (piano); John Faire, Fred Jordan (guitar); Edwyn Conley (bass); and Cozy Cole (drums). Cozy recorded it in Cincinnati, Oh. (1959) as “Cozy And Bossa” also known as “Cozy’s Mambo.” It was released as Bethlehem 3067 and King 5303 in 1960.


We Know a Bit about Cozy Cole

Born William Randolph Cole, and given the nicknames “Colesy” and “Cozy” by schoolmates, the young drummer first envied Duke Ellington drummer Sonny Greer. As a kid, Cozy learned to tap dance, and incorporated that style into his drumming. He would eventually bridge the worlds between swing, bebop, and rock ‘n’ roll as a drummer. According to critics, he also pioneered “hand and foot independence” (perhaps also termed “coordinated independence”) which may form the basis of much modern drumming.

Cozy played on “Load of Coal” aka “Load of Cole” which Jelly Roll Morton recorded in 1930. His subsequent recordings with Cab Calloway—including “Paradiddle” and “Ratamacue”—emphasized drums, some of the earliest recordings to do so.

In addition to his activities with Jelly Roll Morton and Cab Calloway, he toured, appeared, or recorded with Blanche Calloway, Benny Carter, Willie Bryant [the unofficial mayor of Harlem], Stuff Smith, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lionel Hampton. He was one of the first African American musicians to play in a network band, for CBS, in the early 1940s.

Cozy recorded as leader on Love, King, Coral, Columbia, Bethlehem, Verve, and many other labels. He appeared in several movies, including I’m in the Revue (Italian), Don’t Knock the Rock, and The Glenn Miller Story. He also featured in Broadway musicals: Carmen Jones and Seven Lively Arts.

Together with Gene Krupa, he co-founded a drum school that lasted 20 years until Krupa’s death in 1973. Well after he’d established himself professionally, Cozy enrolled at Juilliard School of Music, where he continued to study drumming. He toured Europe with Jack Teagarden and Earth “Fatha” Hines. He toured Africa.


Cozy Is Best Known for “Topsy I” and “Topsy II”

In 1944, Cozy scored a minor hit with “Just One More Chance,” which he recorded on Keynote [1300] as the leader of the Cozy Cole All Stars. The song rose to #10 on Billboard’s Harlem Hit Parade.

Yet the drummer enjoyed national prominence when he released “Topsy I” and “Topsy II”—a drum-inspired jazz piece spread out over two sides of a 45—in 1958. Cozy was 49 at the time. “Topsy I” charted at #27 on Billboard’s pop charts, but “Topsy II” reached #3 on Billboard’s pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts. (It also reached #1 on Cash Box.) The same side also charted in the U.K. (#29 on the pop charts.) The tiny Love Records label released “Topsy I” and “Topsy II”; the record would sell one million copies and receive a gold disc. In the same year, Cozy released “Turvy I” and “Turvy II.” The former didn’t chart, but the latter would make the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #36.

The title, “Topsy”, derived from a few different sources. Ultimately, it may refer to Topsy herself, a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but it also refers to a piece that appeared in Mr. Tom, a folk opera written by jazz musicians Edgar Battle and Eddie Durham, also with Peter Doraine. As Cozy recorded both “Topsy” and “Turvy”, obviously he punned on the informal phrase, topsy-turvy. Battle and Durham composed the song “Topsy” presumably in the 1930s, when Count Basie (1937) and Benny Goodman (1938) recorded it.


Cozy’s Legacy

Preston Epps and Sandy Nelson both inherited from Cozy, taking drum-themed rock ‘n’ roll recordings onto the charts. The English rock ‘n’ roll drummer Colin Powell changed his name to Cozy Powell, in tribute to his idol. In older age, Cozy Cole earned a bachelor’s degree at Capital University when he was awarded (as a junior) an honorary doctorate from the same school. He passed away in 1981.



Sources of Information

Black Cat Rockabilly Europe Cozy Cole page
Capital University Endowed Fund Listing
Discogs entry for Cozy Cole
Discogs entry for “Cozy’s Mambo”
Drummer World page for Cozy Cole
JazzDisco listing for Bethlehem Records discography (1958 onward)
Modern Drummer (background piece
Modern Drummer (tribute/obituary) by Scott K. Fish
Way Back Attack (Michael Jack Kirby) Cozy Cole page 
Wikipedia entry for Cozy Cole 



resurrection week editorial schedule:
“Great White Water” (Shaker)
“Cozy’s Mambo” (R&B Shaker)

2 comments:

LAudaP said...

Wow. Awesome stuff. Maybe someday we'll have an "Early R&B Reference Tome" from Blood and Gutstein!? Think about it...

DAN / DANIEL GUTSTEIN said...

Mr. LAudaP, Sir, thanks for your kind words and for the suggestion. The jump blues project ended, and might have ended my knocking-about for obscure, gratifying music, but the shocking amount of early rock and early r&b (usually between 1958 and 1964) (or the dates roughly between the arrival of Elvis and the arrival in the U.S. of the Brit Invasion) kept me digging. In short, between jump and what I call "shakers" I have a personal box set of about 40 hours of music. This music, ehhh, doesn't suck! To the contrary. The question is -- how specifically to account for it? Any suggestions would be welcome. Mostly, I hope all is well in your burgh, and with you and all your peeps. All righty. ------------------BA