Steve Cole
(born 17 August 1966) is an American tenor saxophonist who has released five albums starting in the late 1990s. Most of his albums have been well-received, earning him several awards. He is also a professor/adviser of music business at Columbia College Chicago [1].
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STEVE COLE TICKETS
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Early career and education
Cole was born in
Chicago,
Illinois and began to play music at a young age. At first, he trained classically, following in his father's footsteps with the
clarinet before switching to the saxophone in high school. While at
Northwestern University, he studied classical saxophone before changing his field to
economics, eventually earning an
MBA from The University of Chicago. After leaving school, Cole returned his focus to music; in particular,
jazz.
In a 2003 interview with JazzNation, Cole describes how he started his career:
"I started playing pop music, R&B, be-bop, all that stuff, playing clubs in Chicago until 4 o’clock in the morning for many years. You know, just doing that kind of thing, then started doing some commercial music, radio and TV stuff. Then I started thinking about getting in to some other types of music. I met some great people here in Chicago, Brian Culbertson, a guy named Bob Mamet, an Atlantic Records recording artist, a while ago, and started getting on the road and playing as a side man for those guys and eventually was able to do it on my own."
In 2000 his first solo album
Stay Awhile
won him the
Prism Award for Best New Artist
at the
Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards
. He was also a winner of
Chicago Symphony Orchestra's annual young artists competition, allowing him the honor of performing with the orchestra.
In 2001 he hit the charts with the
Grover Washington jr &
Bill Withers classic "Just The Two of Us" from the star-studded tribute album "To Grover, with Love", produced by renowned keyboardist/arranger/producer Jason Miles. The album eventually made # 4 on the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums. The track covered fantastically by Regina Belle, Steve Cole and George Duke is still on the playlist of many jazz radio stations and has become a jazz classic.
Present career
Cole's second album
Between Us
resulted in a #1 hit with the track
Got It Goin’ On
and the single
Thursday
from the album,
Spin
, reached the Top 20 in the radio charts.
Spin
was well-received by critics with a score of 4.5/5.0 at
Allmusic - the same score held by
Between Us
and
NY LA
. Originally his next album was due to be released in 2006, but was delayed until 2007.
Steve's newest album, "TRUE" is considered his funkiest yet, with plenty of obvious
R&B,
soul, and
jazz influences. Cole bridges the gap between instrumental virtuosity and seamless ensemble playing, with a high-caliber creative chemistry that runs the stylistic gamut. The group of world class and highly regarded players which join him on True helped make it his highest rated album yet, according to current Amazon.com reviews .
Discography
- Stay Awhile
(1998)
- Between us
(2000)
- NY LA
(2003)
- Spin
(2005)
- True
(2006)
The Sax Pack (2008)
See also
References
- Columbia College Chicago : Steve Cole