William "Cozy" Cole took up drumming as a child; by the end of the 1920s, Cole had already briefly led his own band, and in 1930 he recorded with Jelly Roll Morton. During the early-'30s he worked with Benny Carter and Willie Bryant, and in 1938, he began a four-year tenure with Cab Calloway. He also recorded with Lionel Hampton on his classic RCA sessions before returning to his studies, this time at the Juilliard School of Music. In the late-'40,s he joined Louis Armstrong’s All Stars where he featured on the soundtrack of a film, THE STRIP in 1951.Throughout the 1950s, Cole ran a drum school in partnership with fellow percussion-god Gene Krupa, and in 1958, even had a surprising double-sided U.S. hit single with "Topsy I"/"Topsy II."