George Coleman: Close to Home

Martin Longley

Concert/Festival Reviewer since 2007

Martin Longley also writes for the BBC Music website, Jazzwise and The Wire magazines, plus the NYC Jazz Record and Coventry Telegraph newspapers.

Recent articles (164 total)

Published: April 11, 2010

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Coleman has occasionally collaborated with musicians who have been concerned with testing the tensile skin of jazz. Roach, Richie Beirach, Elvin Jones and Hancock spring to mind, even some of his own larger ensemble configurations. In recent years, though, Coleman has been addressing the very heart of the music, completely immersing himself in the standard form. In no way does this suggest any degree of slackness. His solos are always fiery and tough, whilst his tone is also capable of tender ballad negotiation. Sitting here in his apartment, relaxing, Coleman might be relishing the onset of twilight career inactivity, but at those recent Jazz Standard and Smoke gigs, the audiences found a man who becomes inflamed with the passion of jazz, right there, while he's treading those boards, exchanging vital vibrations with his eager appreciators. It'll be the same at Dizzy's this month...

Selected Discography

Max Roach, Deeds, Not Words (Riverside-OJC, 1958)
Miles Davis, In Concert: My Funny Valentine + Four & More (Columbia-Legacy, 1964)
Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1965)
Eastern Rebellion, Eponymous (Timeless, 1975)
George Coleman, At Yoshi's (Evidence, 1987)
George Coleman, I Could Write A Book (The Music of Richard Rodgers) (Telarc, 1998)