Beth Lesser/Supplied
Toronto’s Kensington Market in the 1960s was already the city’s most culturally diverse neighbourhood, a place writer Adele Wiseman described as brimming with “the sounds of Yiddish, Portuguese, Italian and the smell of fresh bread, brine and live chickens.” Within a few years, the Market’s sounds and smells grew infinitely richer and more tropical with the arrival of Caribbean entrepreneurs such as Stranger Cole.
Mr. Cole, a renowned singer from Jamaica, accepted a friend’s offer to share space in his carpet store at 58 Kensington Avenue and began to sell recordings of jazz, gospel, disco and, predominantly, reggae music. Opening in 1978, Mr. Cole’s newly christened Roots Records became one of the Market’s first Caribbean businesses, followed shortly afterward by Tiger’s Coconut Grove, a palm frond decorated beach-style café featuring curry goat, veggie patties and fruit juices, opened by Jamaican-born Eric (Tiger) Armstrong, a former wrestler, horse trainer and calypsonian known as Lord Power.
Roots Records pumped out bass-heavy reggae rhythms into the streets of the Market, as Mr. Cole set giant speakers on the sidewalk to entice customers. When fellow Jamaican musician-turned-retailer Ronnie (Bop) Williams opened his Record Corner across the street and began duelling, DJ-style, with his own booming sound system, it created what locals called the “wobble zone”– a noise thunderous enough to throw passersby off balance.
Mr. Cole eventually moved back to Jamaica, but the legacy he left in Toronto remains profound. When he died in Kingston on June 11 at the age of 83, many in Toronto remembered him as a pillar of the city’s music community. “Stranger is a local legend,” said David Kingston, known to radio listeners of his Reggae Showcase show as Lord Selector. “Roots Records was a central congregating place for musicians and music fans alike and Stranger was a mentor and very supportive of local musicians.” Singer Mojah, who led Toronto’s popular reggae band Truths and Rights, agreed: “Stranger was a beautiful human and was really like a father figure to us.”
Meanwhile, Olivia (Babsy) Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, who once managed artists in Toronto including Mr. Cole, called him “an icon who shaped the sound and evolution of Jamaican music from ska through rocksteady to reggae.” Added Ms. Grange: “His timeless hits include Bangarang, Just Like a River and Run Joe. Bangarang is, in fact, widely regarded as one of the earliest recordings of the reggae genre.”
Supplied
Born Wilburn Theodore Cole on July 26, 1942, in Kingston, Jamaica, Mr. Cole earned the nickname “Stranger,” he told filmmakers Chris Flanagan and Graeme Mathieson in their documentary Ruff & Tuff: Stranger Cole’s Toronto Roots, when his mother called him that at birth because she said he didn’t resemble anyone in the family. Eventually he grew into the spitting image of his father, Philip, a cabinetmaker and guitar player and builder, but the nickname stuck.
After proving his singing ability at school, Stranger got his first crack at recording for producer Duke Reid, after an introduction from his deejaying brother Leroy (Cuttings) Cole, and had immediate success with the ska hit singles Rough and Tough and When I Call Your Name, a duet with Patsy Todd. Mr. Cole’s shyness led him to record an increasing number of popular duets with other partners, including Ken Boothe, Gladstone Anderson and Hortense Ellis, working with leading producers ranging from Clement (Coxsone) Dodd, Sonia Pottinger and Lee (Scratch) Perry.
Following a brief visit to England, where he toured with singers Owen Gray and Alton Ellis in front of large crowds and briefly found a new generation of fans for his vintage ska, Mr. Cole settled in Toronto at the encouragement of an uncle there. He joined a growing community of notable Jamaican musicians living in the city, including Leroy Sibbles, JoJo Bennett, Jay Douglas, Johnny Osborne, Carlene Davis, Ernie Smith, Lord Tanamo and organist Jackie Mittoo, who was the first to record reggae in Canada.
But paying gigs for a veteran reggae musician proved hard for Mr. Cole to find. With a wife and children to support, he was forced to take work first as a security guard for Eaton’s department store, where his wife worked as a cleaner, and then as a machinist at the Tonka Toy factory. At the same time, with the Super 8 band, he did manage to record two albums under his own name and another, titled Hop Skip and Jump, with the group Chalawa. The latter’s cartoon cover depicts the band and a grinning Mr. Cole, with his signature hat and two gold-capped front teeth, posing in front of a Kensington Market fruit store.
The opening of Mr. Cole’s Roots Records shop in the bustling Market coincided with Caribbean music gaining popularity thanks to superstar Bob Marley. The store catered to this growing interest. Adrian Miller, lead singer of local reggae groups Earth, Roots and Water and later 20th Century Rebels, remembers feasting on Mr. Cole’s offerings. “Stranger had everything in there – the cream of ska, reggae and rocksteady on labels like Beverley’s, Treasure Isle, Studio One and Tuff Gong,” he recalled. “It was like a who’s who of Jamaican music and I was the kid in the candy store, taking it all in.”
The influence spread to Canadian-born musicians David Clayton-Thomas and Bruce Cockburn, who lived for a brief time in Kensington Market, both working with reggae musicians. “By the early 1980s, reggae was central to the Market’s soundscape,” noted musician Jason Wilson, author of King Alpha’s Song in a Strange Land: The Roots and Routes of Canadian Reggae. “Stranger attracted customers, including non-Jamaicans, interested in all things Jamaican. And many who bought vinyl from him were likely unaware that his was the voice behind classics like Rough and Tough and Bangarang.”
Beth Lesser/Supplied
Whether Mr. Cole’s Bangarang was the first reggae song remains a matter of debate. Some musicologists claim it was Toots Hibbert of the Maytals’ song Do the Reggay; others give the nod to Larry Marshall’s Nanny Goat. But Mr. Cole has always insisted that Bangarang, recorded in 1968, around the same time as the other contenders, came first.
“I was passing by Treasure Isle studios one day,” he recalled, “and producer Bunny Lee called me upstairs where he was recording an instrumental, Bongo Chant (an adaptation of Kenny Graham and his Afrocubists’ 1950s hit of the same name), with saxophonist Lester Sterling. He asked me if I could put some words to it and just came up with ‘Mumma no wan bangarang,’ and the rest is history.”
As Mr. Cole sold vinyl by day and continued recording and performing by night, the reggae scene grew around him, gaining increased mainstream attention. Mr. Sibbles and the band Messenjah were both signed to major record label deals and other local reggae artists were appearing in downtown clubs and getting their recordings played on radio. Before long, Toronto had become known as the second-largest producer of reggae music in the world, next only to Jamaica’s Kingston.
In 1982, Mr. Cole released his album The Patriot, featuring Mr. Mittoo, the acclaimed organist, and Ben Bow, the drummer who had appeared, along with Mr. Sibbles, on Mr. Cockburn’s hit single Wondering Where the Lions Are. Mr. Cole released the record on his own label and produced recordings for local artists including Samuel Mickle, the Collinder Sisters and Prince Rashie, all of whom he energetically promoted.
His efforts to support others earned him respect as a cultural ambassador, but Mr. Cole felt his own star as a musical legend was fading. In 1988, he returned to Jamaica and began re-establishing his profile, appearing at Reggae Sunsplash in 1993 and seeing all of his hits re-released by Trojan Records on the 2003 collection Bangarang: The Best of Stranger Cole 1962-1972. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Jamaican government for his pioneering role in the country’s music industry.
Recognition for him also came in Toronto. In 2015, he was one of the artists depicted in the giant Reggae Lane mural in the city’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood. And, in 2019, he returned to Toronto to take part in the Titans of Reggae showcase at the Opera House, performing alongside Nana McLean, Mr. Sibbles, Mr. Douglas and Willi Williams.
Mr. Cole passed his musical legacy to some of his children. His eldest son, Wilburn, known professionally as Squidly Cole, is award-winning drummer, performing with artists including Ziggy Marley, Mutabaruka and Lauryn Hill, while his youngest son, Marcus Cole, contributed to his father’s later recordings as a producer. Two other sons, Philip Cole and Chris Cole, have each worked as a DJ and singer respectively but are not currently active in music.
Mr. Cole, who was predeceased by his son Wilbert, leaves six children (from four mothers), Wilburn, Philippa, Christopher, Sophia, Philip and Marcus, and numerous grandchildren. A complete list of his survivors was not available.
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