Jaz Coleman
| Jaz Coleman | |
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Jaz Coleman in 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jeremy Coleman |
| Born | 26 February 1960 |
| Origin | Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England |
| Genres | Post-punk, industrial metal, classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, keyboardist, drummer, songwriter, conductor |
| Instruments | vocals, keyboard, synthesizer, piano, drums, percussion, violin |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Cooking Vinyl, Red Ink, Sony, Zoo Entertainment/Volcano, E.G., Virgin, Spinefarm Records |
| Website | www |
Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (born 26 February 1960, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England) is a musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist and occasional keyboardist of post-punk group Killing Joke.
Known for his unique voice and stage presence (occasionally appearing wearing face makeup), Bill Janovitz, writer for the website Allmusic, described Coleman's stage presence and voice as "almost always full-on in his approach, with a terrifying growl of a voice that is similar to that of Motörhead's Lemmy".
Killing Joke's song "The Wait" was covered by Metallica on the $5.98 E.P. in 1987 and was later featured on Garage, Inc., and frontman James Hetfield picked Coleman as one of his favourite singers.
In addition, Coleman has composed orchestral and soundtrack pieces.
Coleman was born in Cheltenham to an English father and an Anglo-Indian mother of half-Bengali descent, both of whom were school teachers. He studied piano and violin under Eric Coleridge, head of music for Cheltenham College, until the age of 17, and was a member of several cathedral choirs in England.
Coleman studied in Leipzig DDR in 1987 and Cairo Conservatoire in 1979, completing an extensive study of Arabic quartertones at the latter institution. According to his own account, Coleman also studied international banking for three years in Switzerland and is an ordained priest with a church in New Zealand.
In 1978 Coleman founded Killing Joke with drummer Paul Ferguson in Notting Hill, United Kingdom. The pair then recruited guitarist Geordie Walker and bassist Martin Glover (aka Youth). The group released their first single in October 1979 and their first eponymous album was released in 1980. Coleman contributed lead vocals and keyboards to the band's songs, which are categorised as post-punk, and the music later inspired the industrial rock and metal genres.
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