Henry Cole

Henry Cole is the longtime drummer in saxophonist Miguel Zenón's Grammy-winning quartet, where his playing shapes the group's rhythmic architecture. Born and raised in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, he trained at La Escuela Libre de Música there and at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico before attending Berklee College of Music, then took a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music to study with John Riley. As a bandleader he folds Puerto Rican folkloric rhythm, funk, R&B and the momentum of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat into his own music, first on Roots Before Branches (2012) with the Afrobeat Collective and later on Buscando La Vida (2015) and De Mayagüez (2025) with Villa Locura, the band named for the neighborhood he grew up in. He has also recorded and performed with Gary Burton, Chano Domínguez, Andy Montañez and Calle 13, winning a Grammy for his work with the last of those. In 2018 he founded Escuelas en Ritmo, an outreach program that brings performances and rhythm workshops into Puerto Rico's public schools.