Holly Cole is set to release her 13th studio album, ‘Dark Moon’, on January 24th. Teaming up with her long-time live performance partners, along with additional musicians to create rich harmonies and layers, this album is a true ensemble project that highlights her signature style.
Cole said, “I really wanted this album to embrace the spirit of spontaneity. At the same time a quintessential part of the sound of my music is in the arrangements. So, we did very little rehearsal in advance, and the songs were incredibly fresh for us while we were in the studio. The musicians that I play with contribute greatly to the arranging of the songs, and I wanted to hear the sound of when the light goes on for each one of us and many of the arrangements fell together as we played them. What we end up hearing on this record is the the moment when we discover what we love about the song, and what its essence is for me.”
The ensemble that Holly has brought together to help create and perform on ‘Dark Moon’ includes long time live performance / recording mates, Aaron Davis (piano), George Koller (bass), Davide Direnzo (drums) and John Johnson (saxophone). Add to that the brilliance of sometime accompanist’s including guitar master and provocateur Kevin Breit and on harmonica two-time Grammy winner and original member of Bella Fleck and the Flecktones, Howard Levy and finally the wonderful three-part 1950’s Nashville style harmonies of the Good Lovelies. Together they define the absolute best in “ensemble playing”!
The first featured single is ‘No Moon At All’ is an up-tempo, sexy version of the track originally recorded by Peggy Lee that features a wonderful Howard Levy (2-time Grammy winner, friend, and original member of the Flecktones) harmonica solo. ‘Dark Moon’ is available via Rumpus Room/Universal Music Canada on CD, 180-gram black vinyl, standard, Hi-Res digital + ATMOS
Holly Cole began her career in 1989 with the release of her 4-song EP ‘Christmas Blues’ under indie label Alert Music, followed by her debut album ‘Girl Talk’ in 1990.
In 1992, she signed with Blue Note’s Manhattan imprint and released ‘Blame It on My Youth’ which achieved Platinum + sales in Canada, over 200,000 copies internationally, and based on the success of the single “Calling You”, a number 1 charted single and album in Japan. The next album based on her hit rendition of Johnny Nash’s, “I Can See Clearly Now” and its accompanying video cemented her success internationally setting up her following release, the critically acclaimed, Temptation, an album made up of material exclusively written by Tom Waits, one of Holly favourite songwriters.
With 12 albums to her name, Cole has achieved multi-platinum sales and received numerous awards, including 2 Juno Awards (out of 8 nominations) and 2 Gemini Awards. She has also won two Japanese Grand Prix Gold Disc Awards and the prestigious Ella Fitzgerald Award from the Montreal Jazz Festival, joining the ranks of Aretha Franklin, Diana Krall and Etta James. In 2014, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University.
In 2019, Holly Cole reunited the original Holly Cole Trio, with David Pitch on bass and Aaron Davis on piano, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. They performed at the cabaret Lion d’Or in Montreal, and these special shows were recorded and became the 2021 album ‘Montreal’.
For Christmas 2022, Cole released a remastered compilation combining her holiday releases from 1989 and 2001, titled anew ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside and I Have the Christmas Blues’.
Holly Cole isn’t one of those artists who falls into any one category. Her smoky voice is sultry, her arrangements smart and sexy and all the while she and her musicians very uniquely reshape traditional Jazz, Pop and Country standards, this time particularly from the New American Songbook writers including Marty Balin, Peggy Lee, Hal David, Burt Bacharach and Johnny Mercer.