Jazz artist Richie Cole brings 'Alto Madness' to Cocoa Beach

Lyn Dowling
For FLORIDA TODAY
Jazz saxophonist Richie Cole will perform at Heidi's Jazz Club in Cocoa Beach on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15-16, 2019.

Alto madness is coming to Heidi’s Jazz Club in Cocoa Beach.

Alto saxophone great Richie Cole, once referred to in Down Beat magazine as “the sax machine,” will perform at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Heidi's, which has a national reputation for serving great jazz.

“Richie Cole is one of the greats, a living legend,” owner Heidi Deleuil said. “We are so fortunate that he will play (here).”

Starting in the late 1960s, Cole, a graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston, lent his talents to the bands led by Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton and Doc Severinsen. He later formed his own quintet, which helped popularize bebop and Cole’s “alto madness” style, and formed the Alto Madness Orchestra in the early '90s.

Cole said, “The idea of the orchestra is the concept and sound of an 18-piece big band using only seven instruments, four of which are horns. Not only does this have the big band ensemble sound, it also allows us plenty of room for improvisation as if we were in a quartet setting.”

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A prolific composer who has recorded 50 albums with the likes of Eddie Jefferson, the Manhattan Transfer, Bobby Enriquez, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, Tom Waits, Boots Randolph and Nancy Wilson. He has performed at the Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall and has given a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

A teacher of master classes, he is a charter member of the International Association of Jazz Educators who chaired the board of the National Endowment for the Arts.

“This is a real treat,” Deleuil said. “Richie Cole really is one of the last true jazz greats.”

Saxophonist Richie Cole

When: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16

Where: Heidi’s Jazz Club, 7 N. Orlando Ave., Cocoa Beach

Tickets: $20 per person

On the web: heidisjazzclub.com/performance/20191116/richie-cole

Call: 321-783-4559