Steve Coleman


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

Early life

Steve Coleman was born and 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 worked in 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, Michael Brecker and Abbey Lincoln. During his first four years in New York, Coleman played in the streets and in small clubs with a band that he put together with trumpeter Graham Haynes. This group would evolve into Steve Coleman and Five Elements, which 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 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, which specialized in preserving various styles of rumba as well as all persisting African traditions in Cuba which are mixed together under the general title of Santería. In 1996 Coleman along with a group of 10 musicians and 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."

Sexual misconduct allegations

In 2017, saxophonist María Grand emailed a letter to forty friends, industry colleagues, members of the We Have Voice Collective, a group advocating for change in the jazz industry, and Coleman's wife, as well as authorising one of the recipients to share the letter with journalists and colleagues. In the letter, she wrote that she believed Coleman had taken advantage of his position as her prominent and older mentor to groom and manipulate her into a romantic and sexual relationship characterised by 'an abusive dynamic' and 'sexual harassment' from 2011 to 2016. In November 2018, Coleman sued Grand for defamation in a US district court, and Grand countersued, alleging defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Coleman's claim of defamation was ruled against by the court. Grand's claims of defamation and IIED were similarly deemed to fail as a matter of law. Coleman has appealed.

Discography

As leader

  • Motherland Pulse
  • On the Edge of Tomorrow
  • World Expansion
  • Sine Die
  • Rhythm People
  • Black Science
  • Phase Space with Dave Holland
  • Drop Kick
  • Rhythm in Mind
  • The Tao of Mad Phat
  • We Beez Like That!
  • Myths, Modes and Means
  • The Way of the Cipher
  • Def Trance Beat
  • Curves of Life
  • Steve Coleman's Music: Live in Paris
  • The Sign and the Seal
  • Genesis & the Opening of the Way
  • The Sonic Language of Myth
  • The Ascension to Light
  • Resistance Is Futile
  • On the Rising of the 64 Paths
  • Lucidarium
  • Weaving Symbolics
  • Invisible Paths: First Scattering
  • Harvesting Semblances and Affinities – recorded in 2006–07
  • The Mancy of Sound – recorded in 2007
  • Functional Arrhythmias
  • Synovial Joints
  • Morphogenesis
  • Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. I
  • Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. II
  • ''PolyTropos / Of Many Turns''

    As leader of M-Base

  • M-Base, ''Anatomy of a Groove''

    As sideman

With Doug Hammond
  • Spaces – digitally remixed and produced by Coleman
  • Perspicuity
With Dave Holland
  • Jumpin' In
  • Seeds of Time
  • The Razor's Edge
  • Triplicate
  • Extensions
With Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
  • The Orchestra – rec. live in Berlin, October 1978
  • Body and Soul – rec. live in Berlin, October 1978; both reissued as double CD
  • A Touch of Class – rec. live in Warsaw, late October 1978
  • In Europe – re-release of both 1978 concerts together
With Mel Lewis and The Jazz Orchestra
With Abbey Lincoln
  • Talking to the Sun
  • Who Used to Dance
With David Murray
With Errol Parker
  • The Errol Parker Tentet
  • Live at the Wollman Auditorium
With Sam Rivers
  • Colours
  • Inspiration
  • Culmination
With The Roots
  • From the Ground Up
  • Do You Want More?!!!??! – recorded in 1993–94
  • Illadelph Halflife
With Marvin "Smitty" Smith
With Cassandra Wilson
  • Point of View
  • Days Aweigh
  • Jumpworld
  • Traveling Miles
With others