Celebrated for his rich, smooth improvisational skill on the saxophone, American jazz musician George Coleman has performed and made recordings with a starry list of jazz players from the 1950s when he was in his twenties well into the 21st century in his eighties. The 2015 NEA Jazz Masters honoured his life's achievements as saxophonist, composer and educator, and in a review of his 2016 album 'A Master Speaks', which went to number 18 on Billboard's Jazz Albums Chart, the Guardian noted that while his "gold-plated reputation" went back to recordings with B.B.King, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, his first album in 20 years proved that, at the age of 80 he was "still one of the most fluent and inventive tenor saxophonists around".
Born in Memphis, Tennessee he grew up around musicians and learned to play the saxophone in his teens. He worked with Ray Charles and B.B. King and after moving to Chicago had a stint with the Max Roach Quintet and played on organist Jimmy Smith's 1957 release 'House Party'. He went on to New York and worked with trombonist Slide Hampton and in the 1960s with trumpeter Miles Davis. He was a sideman with many other artists on recordings through the rest of the century including Chet Baker, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. His first album as leader or co-leader was 'Meditation' in 1977 with pianist Tete Montoliu and he released several more including 'Manhattan Panorama' (1985), a concert recording with pianist Harold Mabern, bass player Jamil Nasser and drummer Idris Muhammad, 'Blue Inside Out' (1995) recorded live at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, and 'Four Generations of Miles: A Live Tribute to Miles' (2002) with guitarist Mike Stern, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb. His 2007 release 'Live: The Authorised Bootleg' with organist Joey DeFrancesco reached number 47 on Billboard's Jazz Albums Chart.
He appears playing saxophone in the feature films 'Freejack' (1992) starring Mick Jagger and Anthony Hopkins and 'The Preacher's Wife' (1996) starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, and he has appeared on American television shows including 'Captain Kangaroo'. He has also appeared as a model and for more than 30 years he has been involved heavily in jazz education at universities and music schools in New York.
