"His name was Nat and my name is Fred

Now, we look alike - so it's been said

But I'll stress a point to make you see

That I am not my brother, I'm me."

When Freddy Cole sits down at the piano and begins to sing, he can't ignore the elephant in the concert hall. So he faces it head on, with humor, in his song, "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me." His older brother, Nat King Cole, was one of the most popular entertainers in the world when he died of lung cancer in 1965 at the age of 47. He still casts a long shadow.

While other famous musical brothers are easily distinguished - Wynton Marsalis plays trumpet, Branford plays saxophone - Cole is a pianist and singer, just like his brother. Though his voice is more gravelly and his style more bluesy, similarities in phrasing and timbre are unmistakable.

Despite those lyrics, when he brings his quartet to the Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside for a Christmas show, Cole will not be troubled if he's compared to his brother.

"He was a great guy," says Cole. "I wish I could be one-tenth of the man he was. He was a wonderful person in all aspects of his life - loving, caring, responsible, upright - every accolade you could bestow on him, it fit him."

Even though Nat was 12 years older, the brothers were close. "As close as I could be with him not being home every day," says Cole. "He was a grown man when I was coming along."

Cole keeps in touch with Nat's daughter, Natalie Cole, a star known for her phenomenal voice and her history with drugs. "I talk with her quite often," he says. "She's doing well now."

The youngest of five children, Cole says he had a normal childhood. Music was always present; his mother played organ at church and his brothers all played instruments. When Nat's career took off in the late 1930's things got a little more interesting. But when jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie stopped by the house, Cole took it in stride.

"Nat would invite them for a meal when they were in Chicago," says Cole. "I'd come home from school and they'd be there. It was no big deal."

Cole, who started playing piano at the age of 6, absorbed it all. "There was an abundance of great musicians at that time. You just kind of listened to everyone and eventually you'd find yourself."

As a teenager, his musical gifts were nearly sidelined by another interest: football. He was a serious enough running back in high school to be a prospect for the National Football League.

"I was serious enough to get out of there," says Cole. "I got hurt. I still love football. I loved to play it and I love to watch it. I had aspirations, but that's something that didn't happen. God knew what to do to keep me from getting killed."

Instead, he attended The Julliard School and New England Conservatory of Music and began playing piano in a variety of groups around the Midwest. During his formative years he admired pianists like John Lewis and Horace Silver. His dynamic and inventive keyboard style attests to their influence.

Not surprisingly, his major vocal influences are all baritones: Arthur Prysock Johnny Hartman and, especially, Eckstine.

"I admired Billy Eckstine as a singer, a performer and a person. He was a great guy," Cole says.

I like songs like "Ramblin' Rose," "Mona Lisa"

"Unforgettable," "Sweet Lorraine"

But I'll say it again in the same refrain

Cole loves his brother's repertoire and he does not shy away from the classics that Nat made famous. At the Radisson show you can bet he'll be performing "The Christmas Song" by Mel Tormé, a huge hit for his brother that remains a radio staple during the holidays. But who could complain about hearing the closest possible interpretation to the original?

Cole also takes pride in the songs he has made his own over six decades. His selections range from standards like "Fly Me To The Moon" to more contemporary pop songs like "Just The Way You Are." There is a common denominator.

"Music is designed to reach out and touch someone," says Cole. "A line in a song, a word, can make me cry. It's very difficult to explain why, but music touches me. You are a performer, you are a storyteller. You have to tell the story that the writer was writing."

As far as capturing the audience is concerned, Cole may be a pro, but he never takes performing for granted. "It's a constant battle. You have to keep working on it every song. You go out there and keep plugging away. You build up to a certain song. Most times I end with a Louis Armstrong song, ‘If We Never Meet Again' and we segue into ‘I'll Be Seeing You.'"

Hey, I'm not tryin' to fill nobody's shoes

You see my brother made a whole lot of money but I sing

the blues

There have been lulls in his career, but since 1990 Cole has been on a roll, recording 20 albums. He's constantly on the road with a group - Randy Napoleon on guitar, Elias Bailey on bass, and Curtis Boyd on drums - that's like family to him. They regularly tour Europe and travel to Japan once a year. At the age of 78, he has no plans of slowing down any time soon. "I'm lucky," he says, "lucky to be able to sing and play."

Freddy Cole Quartet

Friday, December 18

Radisson Riverside Hotel, 120 E Main St.

8 p.m. | $10-$25 | 733-7685, ExodusToJazz.com