Jamaican-born singer Stranger Cole helped establish Toronto as a reggae hot spot

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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.”

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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 M…