Word: ahbez
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...idol, Earl ("Fatha") Hines. Cole became a strong force in jazz, influenced the styles of such greats as Bill Evans, Ray Charles, Oscar Peterson. The event that helped turn him permanently into a singer was the unlikely appearance in 1948 of a bearded, barefoot hermit-songwriter named Eden Ahbez, who smuggled one of his songs to Cole through his valet. It was called Nature Boy, and Cole's haunting version of it became a runaway bestseller. He soon broke up his trio to charges of "artistic sellout" by the jazz critics. "Critics," countered Cole, "don't buy records...