Steve Coleman


Steve Coleman is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Early life

Steve Coleman grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing alto saxophone at the age of 14. Coleman attended Illinois Wesleyan University for two years, followed by a transfer to Roosevelt University.
Coleman moved to New York in 1978 and would work big bands such as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Slide Hampton's big band, Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea Orchestra, and briefly in Cecil Taylor's big band. Shortly thereafter, Coleman began working as a sideman with David Murray, Doug Hammond, Dave Holland, Mike Brecker and Abbey Lincoln. For the first four years in New York Coleman spent a good deal of time playing in the streets and in tiny clubs with a band that he put together with trumpeter Graham Haynes, the group that would evolve into the ensemble Steve Coleman and Five Elements that would serve as the main ensemble for Coleman's activities. In this group, he developed his concept of improvisation within nested looping structures. Coleman collaborated with other young African-American musicians such as Cassandra Wilson and Greg Osby, and they founded the so-called M-Base movement.

Research

Coleman regards the music tradition he is coming from as African Diasporan culture with essential African retentions, especially a certain kind of sensibility. He searched for these roots and their connections of contemporary African-American music. For that purpose, he travelled to Ghana at the end of 1993 and came in contact with the Dagomba people whose traditional drum music uses very complex polyrhythm and a drum language that allows sophisticated speaking through music. Thus, Coleman was animated to think about the role of music and the transmission of information in non-western cultures. He wanted to collaborate with musicians who were involved in traditions which come out of West Africa. One of his main interests was the Yoruba tradition which is one of the Ancient African Religions underlying Santería, Vodou and Candomblé. In Cuba, Coleman found the group Afrocuba de Matanzas who specialized in preserving various styles of rumba as well as all in Cuba persisting African traditions which are mixed together under the general title of Santería. In 1996 Coleman along with a group of 10 musicians as well as dancers and the group Afrocuba de Matanzas worked together for 12 days, performed at the Havana Jazz Festival, and recorded the album The Sign and the Seal. In 1997 Coleman took a group of musicians from America and Cuba to Senegal to collaborate and participate in musical and cultural exchanges with the musicians of the local Senegalese group Sing Sing Rhythm. He also led his group Five Elements to the south of India in 1998 to participate in a cultural exchange with different musicians in the carnatic music tradition.
In September 2014, Coleman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for "refreshing traditional templates to create distinctive and innovative work in... jazz."

Discography

As leader

Steve Coleman and Five Elements, except otherwise noted
With Sam Rivers
With Doug Hammond
With Franco Ambrosetti
With Abbey Lincoln
With Dave Holland
With Chico Freeman
With Billy Hart
With the Errol Parker Tentet
With David Murray
With Cassandra Wilson
With Geri Allen
With Michele Rosewoman
With Robin Eubanks
'With Stanley Cowell
With Lonnie Plaxico
With Cindy Blackman
With The Roots
With Ravi Coltrane
With Anthony Tidd’s Quite Sane
The DVD Elements of One by Eve-Marie Breglia shows Steve Coleman and his band from 1996 to 2003 encountering Von Freeman, Afro-Cuban musicians in Cuba, West-African and Afro-Cuban musicians in Senegal, rappers in the United States, Indian musicians in India, ancient Egyptian philosophy in Egypt, and a computer-music research center in Paris.