The University’s School of Music hit concert series Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz returns again today with special guest jazz singer Hilary Kole.
Kole is best known for her award-winning crooning, but she’s also a pianist and budding cellist.
Kole was a musically precocious child, beginning to play piano at 5-years-old. But she wasn’t alone in her love for music. Her father was a Broadway singer, and her grandmother was a Juilliard-trained pianist.
From there, Kole made history by becoming the youngest performer to take the stage at New York’s famous Rainbow Room at the age of 21. During her two-year run there, she performed for the likes of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as well as Oprah Winfrey.
Along with her unique New York upbringing, she crafted her own style in front of audiences and a live band, which taught Kole to think professionally and quickly learn her strengths and weaknesses.
“There’s this energy to New York clubs that’s different than any other place in the world…there’s a certain quality that everyone in New York pretty much expects,” she chuckled. “So you have to be on your A game.”
She continued to headline in New York clubs such as Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note Jazz Club and Carnegie Hall.
Kole went on to release her duet album “You Are There,” in 2010 and worked with big names in the jazz industry such as Hank Jones and Dave Brubeck.
“When it’s just one other person, it really is like a dance,” Kole said. “You are feeling every nuance, and you’re feeling each other’s breath and you’re really responding to each other in a very intimate way. And that is different than when I did my first record, which was with my quartet.”
Kole will collaborate yet again on Thursday night with faculty from the University’s School of Music, kicking off Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz.
She said this is her second time performing at the University and her third appearance in Baton Rouge. Kole said she looks forward to returning to Louisiana because of its cultural history with jazz.
“There’s such a good history of music and certainly of jazz down in Louisiana…Louisiana has a rich jazz history as much as New York, so it’s really fun to go to these places that have such rich musical histories because you can find a different flavor,” she said.
Kole will be performing tonight at the University School of Music Recital Hall, at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $20; University faculty, staff and senior tickets are $15; and University students can purchase tickets for $10, with student I.D.
