Steve Coleman
| Steve Coleman | |
|---|---|
Steve Coleman in Paris, July 2004
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| Background information | |
| Born |
September 20, 1956 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, avant-garde, M-Base |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instruments | Saxophone |
| Labels | JMT, Pangaea, Novus, BMG, Label Bleu, Pi |
| Associated acts | Five Elements, M-Base Collective, Strata Institute |
| Website | m-base |
 Jazz Composer and Saxophonist Steve Coleman, 2014 MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation
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Steve Coleman, born September 20, 1956 , is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.
Steve Coleman grew up in the historically black South Side of Chicago, where music was "around all the time", just "part of the community" and "the sound of everything else". As a child, he was "in these little singing groups, imitating the Jackson 5, singing in church or something like that". He started playing alto saxophone at the age of 14. According to Coleman, his father, who he described as "a Charlie Parker nut", urged him in the jazz direction, but Coleman, who had already taken an interest in the playing of James Brown's altoist, Maceo Parker, had instead joined a funk band. But about three years later he began to study the music of Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane.
After spending two years at Illinois Wesleyan University, Coleman transferred to Roosevelt University (Chicago Musical College) in downtown Chicago in order to concentrate on Chicago's musical nightlife. Coleman had been introduced to Chicago saxophonists Von Freeman and Bunky Green and others from whom he learned. He said, "When I was growing up and playing in Von Freeman's sessions, there were certain things that were important: Your sound, your groove, and how you express yourself....There was always this criticism for not having a sound, not having a good groove, a lot of criticism on rhythm: This cat can't swing, he has no feel, etc. So, it's...a matter of learning this particular idiom from these masters who came before you. You have to get with what it is they're good at expressing. How to make it feel a certain way, how to blend, how to swing? You get cats talking about floating the rhythm, swinging the rhythm, and all these different terms". Coleman also was in contact with Sonny Stitt, whom he regards as one of the "cats like Sonny Rollins, Coltrane, Bird [Charlie Parker]...on that same level". In addition to Freeman and others, Stitt was Coleman's connection to the era of great players like Charlie Parker.
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Wikipedia