Vintage Hotel Key Fobs

Key Condition is used and was part of a collection of famous Jazz musician Richie Cole - who stayed in room 347 during the late 1960’s while touring with The Buddy Rich Band.

Sutter Hotel room key - 191 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 94104

In an era when fusion represented the mainstream of jazz and a new urgency had entered the experimental underground, Cole was proudly anachronistic. He began his career in swing big bands, then broke through with bebop, keeping company with members of the old guard like Red Rodney, Sonny Stitt, and Eddie Jefferson and adapting a classic Sonny Rollins/John Coltrane session title to name his own band, Alto Madness.

By the ’80s Cole was seen less as a throwback than as a torchbearer, and ultimately he became regarded as a revered elder statesman. Through it all, he saw his dyed-in-the-wool bebop credentials simply as a reflection of who he was. “I had many offers to do fusion, or smooth jazz, or whatever they would be doing,” he told writer George W. Harris in a 2018 interview. “It just didn’t interest me. I followed my beliefs.”

Richard Thomas Cole was born February 29, 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey. His father owned two nightclubs in the city, a showroom called Hubby’s Inn and a jazz venue called the Harlem Club. Cole grew up hearing music at both clubs—meeting the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey as they passed through—and, when he was 10, discovered a saxophone that had been left behind at the Harlem Club. He was fascinated by how it worked and soon began learning to play it. At 16, he attended a music camp directed by jazz saxophonist Phil Woods, who would go on to be a lifelong mentor.

By the time he finished Ewing High School, Cole had gained such proficiency that he was awarded a full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. Before he could finish, however, Cole joined Buddy Rich’s big band in 1969, replacing Art Pepper on alto. He then spent time in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and the Doc Severinsen Big Band until the mid-1970s, when he began freelancing at bebop gigs around New York and planning for his own band. Cole also found frequent work in Washington, D.C., becoming something of a house saxophonist at the club Harold’s Rogue and Jar; his composition “Harold’s House of Jazz” became one of his theme songs.

In the process, Cole formed an important partnership with vocalist Eddie Jefferson, with whom he began playing, touring, and recording regularly. The two often appeared on each other’s bills, and Jefferson sang on Cole’s 1977 sextet album New York Afternoon: Alto Madness, whose subtitle would serve as Cole’s motto, brand name, and basic musical description for the remainder of his career.