Freddy Cole has had a great career, whether or not you've ever heard of him.

		Freddy Cole and Karrin Allyson Where: Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, North Side When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 7 and 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $35, 412-322-0800

Now 74, the younger brother of Nat is the subject of a new documentary called "The Cole Nobody Knows." But the title takes some poetic license. The singer/pianist's star has been gradually rising since the early '50s, when he had a modest hit called "The Joke Is on Me," through the '70s and '80s, when he caught on in Europe and Brazil, and into the '90s, when a guest shot on a Grover Washington Jr. CD kindled interest in the States that continues to this day.

"We're on the road all the time, basically. Which is very fortunate, to work as much as we work," Cole says via cell phone from a noisy counter at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, the city where he's lived more than 30 years. "And I never thought I'd see it, but I'm getting too much work," he adds with a grin you can see through the phone. This Thursday through Sunday, Cole's work takes him to the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, where he'll perform on a bill with singer Karrin Allyson.

Of course, Cole hasn't enjoyed anything approaching the household-name status of his older brother, a jazz piano innovator who crossed over into pop crooning. A smaller, in-the-know jazz crowd keeps Freddy touring and recording, and occasionally he grabs a bigger audience.

His recording of "I Loved You" for Decca in England is a case in point.

"They licensed it down in Brazil, and we got lucky. I sold several hundred thousand copies of that damn thing. It was in a soap opera, it was in a movie down there, and it just hit. And every year they re-release it as one of the 'Best of the Novelas' [Brazilian term for soaps]."

A couple of other Cole recordings landed spots in Brazilian novelas, including a version of "For Once in My Life," the Stevie Wonder hit. Then he got a break in the United States, when radio picked up on his version of Wonder's "Overjoyed" on Grover Washington's CD "All My Tomorrows" in 1994.

"It opened me up to a big audience here in America, because Grover was a superstar. It just gave me a little more acceptance, people saying, 'Well, who is that?' "

Cole was then able to make a string of albums for Fantasy and Telarc. Now he's with High Note, which last year released "This Love of Mine."

And let's not forget the TV commercials. "Yeah, I did a ton of those commercials," he says. "I've done very well with them. I could use one now."

The biggest was for Hilton Hotels, with Cole singing Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To." He also sang for Mazda and for a cosmetic company whose name he can't recall. "It was really a big one, too; they played it all day. It was "Night and day, you are the one." (He sings the melody, another Porter tune). "I can't remember [the brands], but I've done a ton of them."

It turns out a couple of Pitts- burghers connect Cole to this city. One is his longtime guitarist, Jerry Byrd, who will be with him this weekend. Another is Billy Eckstine, the late jazz baritone with the masculine, velvet voice.

"I met him when he came to our house with Nat many moons ago. I was very young. And as the years went on, we became very, very good friends."

Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Cole was one of five siblings. His three older brothers were all musicians -- bassist Eddie, pianist/singer Ike and Nat. All of them enjoyed some degree of success. Cole describes his relationship to Nat as "very close. Close family. All my brothers."

Nat brought many famous friends to the house. Freddy was more into sports than music; he aspired to pro football until a hand injury ended his career. So he wasn't overly awed by the musicians in his life.

"They were just everyday people with me. 'B' [Eckstine], Sarah Vaughan, Ellington, Basie. I met 'em all, when I was a kid. They'd stop by for dinner."

Cole attended Juilliard School of Music and earned a master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has readily acknowledged that Nat, who died at 45 in 1965, opened some doors for him. But he also has said that he was musically ready to go through them. Cole doesn't sound particularly like his older brother, for one thing -- at least not at this stage of his life. His voice is huskier than Nat's, and he's got his own sense of timing and swing and dramatic inflection.

Cole has endured a few lean times. But he knew he was doing something right when other musicians began to come by to catch his club gigs.

"When you start getting all of your top-notch musicians breaking their necks to come to hear you, you know you've got their respect. You know, Carmen McRae would come. Billy Eckstine would come. Ahmad Jamal would come.

"It's just like with [trombonist] Harold Betters, there in Pittsburgh. When people come to town, they're not going to see some guys around the corner, they're going to go see Harold. Harold's a helluva musician."

Cole credits the experience he gained performing internationally as helping to polish his style.

"You expand your scope," he explains. "I learned how to sing in other languages. I learned how to be a performer, not just a singer or a piano player. I can sing in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and a language they speak in the Philippines. And I've sung in Japanese. Not extensively. You don't want to make a fool out of yourself, you know? You have to go and do what you do best. If you present what it is you do, they understand you."