George Cole (musician)
George Cole | |
|---|---|
| File:George Cole in 2007.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Born | October 10, 1960 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Gypsy jazz, bluegrass, rock, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, producer, teacher |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | Geffen Interscope, Atlantic, Ocean View, Acoustic Oasis |
| Associated acts | Beatnik Beatch, Big Blue Hearts, David Grisman Quintet |
| Website | www |
George Cole (born October 10, 1960) is an American music producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, session musician, and guitarist. He fronts his own Gypsy jazz/Uptown Swing band and since early 2014 has been the guitarist for the David Grisman Quintet. Before his acoustic music endeavors, he played electric guitar for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum album Forever Blue. Cole is also a teacher, and his students include Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day; Ethan Roberts, and Danny Jones.
Early life[edit]
Cole grew up in Richmond, California[citation needed]. He attended Kennedy High School[citation needed]. He performed in the band "Young Country" in the late 1970s and The Upstarts in the early 1980s[citation needed]. His favorite childhood band was the Benny Goodman Quartet. He also loved Louis Prima, Keely Smith, The Mills Brothers, Lawrence Welk, Alan Sherman, Dave Clark Five, The Turtles, The Zombies, Country Joe and the Fish, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, and the Beatles[citation needed].
Guitar instructor[edit]
Cole has taught guitar lessons to promising musicians for nearly 30 years. He began teaching guitar lessons in California in the 1980s. He taught Billie Joe Armstrong for ten years and the bassist Mike Dirnt of the punk rock band Green Day. "Cole and Billie Joe would frequently spend afternoons jamming together, free-form style with the teacher winging off as many odd notes as his pupil."[1] He helped arrange their first recording session at RDR studios in San Francisco in 1986.
Armstrong's mother bought him his first electric guitar, which he named "Blue".[2] Cole had bought the Fernandez guitar, a replica of a Fender, from David Margen of the band Santana.[2] "Armstrong fetishized his teacher's guitar, partly because the blue instrument had a sound quality and Van Halen–worthy fluidity he couldn't get from his little red Hohner. He prized it mostly, however, because of his relationship with Cole, another father figure after the death of Andy."[1]
Career[edit]
Cole was lead guitarist in the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch from 1984–1988. In Beatnik Beatch he performed with Warren Zevon and Buster Poindexter.[3] Beatnik Beatch has a music video on VH1 which features Cole. The group won a BAMMY – Bay Area Music Award for Best New Major Label Artist.[4]
Cole was a member of the band Big Blue Hearts from 1997–2000. He toured with Joe Walsh of The Eagles, recorded with producer Roy Thomas Baker, and they performed with Robert Cray, Ringo Starr, and Boz Scaggs.[5]
Cole started the gypsy jazz band George Cole Quintet in 2006 and is the Producer, composer, lyricist, Vocalist, and lead guitarist. The band was a five-piece acoustic gypsy jazz group. Cole performed a sold out performance at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of a world flute festival concert to benefit In Defense of Animals.[6][not in citation given] The band performed at a San Francisco Chapter of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences's (Grammys) celebration.[3]
In January 2014 Cole performed with David "Dawg" Grisman[7] as part of the David Grisman Sextet. Cole was asked to join the David Grisman Sextet, assuming the guitar chair first held by Tony Rice and subsequently Mark O'Connor, Frank Vignola, and Mike Marshall.
Discography[edit]
As leader[edit]
- George Cole (2004)
- Riverside Drive (Ocean View, 2010)
- George Cole Live (Acoustic Disc, 2015)
- Bixou Bixou (Ocean View, 2019)
As sideman[edit]
- Beatnik Beatch, At the Zula Pool (Industrial, 1986)
- Beatnik Beatch, Beatnik Beach (1988)
- David Grisman, The David Grisman Sextet (Acoustic Disc, 2016)
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Spitz, Marc (2006). Nobody Likes You: inside the turbulent life, times, and music of Green Day. Hyperion. pp. 11–14. ISBN 9781401302740. Search this book on
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Holmes, Jason (9 February 2021). "George Cole reflects on teaching Green Day & his old Blue guitar". GreenDay.fm. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Thomas, Michelle. "Biography of George Cole". Retrieved 13 January 2009.
- ↑ Beatnik Beatch, George Cole (1986). Beatnik Beatch. VH1.
- ↑ Schwartz, Marc (May 2008). "Amplifying the Gypsy Jazz Guitar". Just Jazz Magazine. 55: 179–184.
- ↑ "Home". idausa.org.
- ↑ "David Grisman Sextet | Freight & Salvage". Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014. Unknown parameter
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External links[edit]
This article "George Cole (musician)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:George Cole (musician). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- Musical artist
- 1960 births
- American male singers
- American rock singers
- American jazz guitarists
- American rock guitarists
- American male guitarists
- American multi-instrumentalists
- Gypsy jazz guitarists
- Musicians from Richmond, California
- Singers from California
- Guitarists from California
- 20th-century American guitarists
- Jazz musicians from California
- 20th-century American male musicians
- American male jazz musicians
