Richie Cole (February 29, 1948 – May 2, 2020) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and arranger.

[1] He began to play alto saxophone when he was ten years old, encouraged by his father, who owned a jazz club in New Jersey.

[2][3] Cole won a scholarship from DownBeat magazine to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

After working with Lionel Hampton's Big Band and Doc Severinsen's Big Band, he formed his own quintet and toured worldwide, developing his own "alto madness" bebop style in the 1970s and early 1980s.

[4] Cole performed and recorded with Eddie Jefferson,[4] Nancy Wilson, Tom Waits, The Manhattan Transfer, Hank Crawford, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Kloss, Bobby Enriquez, Phil Woods,[4] Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, and Boots Randolph.