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.
[1][2][3] 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.
[1][3] He increasingly used an electric piano and organ, and worked widely in clubs and restaurants in London as a solo performer and with other musicians including steel pan player Hugo Gunning, bassist Coleridge Goode, and pianists Iggy Quail and Russ Henderson.