Rupert Cole

While many jazz musicians from the British West Indies immigrated to England, beginning in the early '30s, this prolific Trinidadian recording artist did things differently. Rupert Cole, who would eventually be able to build a medium-sized raft simply out of the Louis Armstrong sides he appeared on, went to New York City instead. His departure from Barbados took place in 1924, a few years ahead of the players who headed for merry old England. Cole had learned clarinet in his homeland but began to double on the alto sax upon arriving in New York, finding this horn to be somewha...