Bobby Cole - A Point of View '1967/2022

Tracks list

       If you lived in New York during the 1950s through the 1990s and liked
jazz, you knew about Bobby Cole. He played piano, sang, composed, arranged and,
in 1967, released an album of original compositions titled "A Point of View"
(Concentric Records). He had fans but avoided becoming mainstream. He stayed
contemporary without becoming current. Jazz, folk, rock, modern dance
scores…he wrote and performed them all. He smoked too much, drugged too
much, drank too much. He was also cerebral, curious, a prodigious reader of
poetry, philosophy, theology, and an uncommonly intelligent and literate
lyricist.

On a December night in 1996, he had a heart attack while walking to work. An
ambulance brought him to New York Hospital where, a few hours later, he died.
Bobby Cole performed throughout Manhattan for forty years, but he spent most of
the 1960s headlining at Jilly's, the midtown bistro owned by Frank Sinatra and
his friend Jilly Rizzo. Sinatra called Bobby "my favorite saloon singer."

Bobby Cole caught the attention of Judy Garland, who visited Jilly's one night
in 1964. She was hosting a weekly television show, and in the midst of a feud
with her special materials arranger, Mel Torme. Three weeks later, Mel was out,
and Bobby was in. He performed on Judy's show with his Trio. Bobby was scarcely
30 years old and it was his first time on television, but he was unruffled,
sophisticated, and so damn cool. After Judy's show ended, Bobby occasionally
arranged and conducted for her until she died.

Today, Jilly's is called the Russian Samovar and the piano is in the same spot.
My husband and I ate there a few years ago. As we enjoyed our meal, I talked
about Jilly's in the Sinatra era. Jilly had an apartment on the upper floor. I
pointed up to the apartment and the balcony, where Jilly and Frank would
sometimes drop water-balloons on unsuspecting pedestrians below. Another story
described Jilly's as "tough, and you had to be tough to work there. Bobby Cole
was tough. Frank and Jilly used to throw firecrackers at him to see if they
could rattle him, but nothing rattled Bobby Cole. He ignored them and kept on
playing." In the 1980s, Bobby headlined at a club called the Café Versailles.
His daughter sometimes visited with her friends. She recalled that when she and
her father would exit the club after work, a panhandler would be waiting for
him. Bobby, who fought his own losing battle with the bottle, would slip the guy
twenty dollars and wryly admonish him, "Be sure not to spend it on food." The
night my husband and I visited the Russian Samovar there was a guy playing piano
there, very young, and trying hard. I talked to him a little bit between his
numbers about Bobby and the history of Jilly's and he was sweet, but I could
tell he didn't care. I felt like one of those old people who bore young people
to death with stories about things that happened before they were born –
which, let's face it, is what I was. Nonetheless, when we were ready to leave, I
put twenty dollars in his tip jar and said, "This is with compliments from Bobby
Cole." After we left my husband said I should have added, "Be sure not to spend
it on food."

Tracklist:
1.01 - Bobby Cole - Status Quo (2:09)
1.02 - Bobby Cole - The Name Of The Game Is Trouble (2:10)
1.03 - Bobby Cole - Lover Boy (4:29)
1.04 - Bobby Cole - You Can’t Build A Life On A Look (2:05)
1.05 - Bobby Cole - But It’s Spring (2:59)
1.06 - Bobby Cole - Heat (2:17)
1.07 - Bobby Cole - You Could Hear A Pin Drop (2:39)
1.08 - Bobby Cole - A Change Of Scene (2:42)
1.09 - Bobby Cole - A Perfect Day (3:33)
1.10 - Bobby Cole - Elegy For Eve (7:13)
1.11 - Bobby Cole - No Difference At All (3:09)
1.12 - Bobby Cole - I’m Growing Old (3:17)
1.13 - Bobby Cole - Checkerboard Life (Bonus Track) (3:30)
1.14 - Bobby Cole - Drink This Cup (Bonus Track) (2:22)
1.15 - Bobby Cole - How The Lonely Spend Their Time (Bonus Track) (2:42)
1.16 - Bobby Cole - I Never Saw The Shadows (Bonus Track) (4:33)
1.17 - Bobby Cole - Tear For Tear (Bonus Track) (3:01)
1.18 - Bobby Cole - When She Was In Love With Me (Bonus Track) (2:59)
1.19 - Bobby Cole - Get Off Looking Good (Bonus Track) (2:57)
1.20 - Bobby Cole - At The Darkest Hour (Bonus Track) (3:08)
1.21 - Bobby Cole - A Toast (Bonus Track) (3:30)
1.22 - Bobby Cole - The Midnight Flower (Bonus Track) (2:19)
1.23 - Bobby Cole - Never Ask The Hour (Bonus Track) (3:25)
1.24 - Bobby Cole - A Change Of Scene (Bonus Track) (Alternate Take) (2:45)
1.25 - Bobby Cole - Life Rolls on (Bonus Track) (3:10) 

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