Rupert Nurse
| Rupert Nurse | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rupert Theophilus Nurse |
| Born |
26 December 1910 Port of Spain, Trinidad |
| Died | 18 March 2001 (aged 90) Arima, Trinidad |
| Genres | Jazz, calypso |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, arranger, record producer |
| Instruments | Piano, electric piano, double bass, tenor saxophone |
| Years active | 1930s-90s |
Rupert Theophilus Nurse (26 December 1910 – 18 March 2001) was a Trinidadian musician who was influential in developing jazz and Caribbean music in Britain, particularly in the 1950s.
He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the only child of Arnold Nurse and Gertrude (née Small), and spent some of his childhood in Venezuela before returning to the island to complete his education. He absorbed local calypso music traditions, and started work as a teacher in Tobago. He taught himself piano, and learned arranging skills from a mail order Glenn Miller book, before returning around 1936 to Trinidad where he worked in an electronics business. He also learned to play the tenor saxophone and, with Guyanese saxophonist Wally Stewart, formed the Moderneers (or Modernaires), the first American-style big band in Trinidad. During the Second World War he played with visiting Americans on the island, and began writing jazz arrangements of calypsos.
He travelled to London in 1945, and began playing double bass with guitarist Fitzroy Coleman and pianist Cyril Jones in the Antilles jazz club near Leicester Square. He joined trumpeter Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson's mostly-black band, with whom he played on radio and toured in Europe, before working with entertainer Cab Kaye in the Netherlands. He also increasingly worked with musicians newly arriving in Britain from the West Indies, including popular pianist Winifred Atwell, and Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts) and his band; and, along with Lauderic Caton, began experimenting with electronic instruments.
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