William Johnson Coleman (August 4, 1904 in Paris, Kentucky

Paris, Kentucky

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,183 people, 3,857 households, and 2,487 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,222 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 84.23% White, 12.71% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.16%...

 – August 24, 1981 in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

) was a jazz trumpeter from the swing era.

He had his musical debut in 1927. Coleman's first recordings were with the Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

 orchestra, but all solos on record went to the rising star Henry "Red" Allen. This led to Bill Coleman's departure from the band. By 1935 he worked with Fats Waller

Fats Waller

Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

. In 1935 he also moved for the first time to France. This led to his working with European musicians like Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...

 in the mid-1930s. He later spent time in Egypt working with Herman Chittison

Herman Chittison

Herman "Ivory" Chittison was an American jazz pianist.He began in Zack Whyte's band in 1928. In his early days he worked with Ethel Waters, Adelaide Hall, and Clarence Williams. In the mid-1930s he was associated with Willie Lewis's band and toured Europe with them...

. In 1941-42 he was with Andy Kirk

Andy Kirk

Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....

's Clouds of Joy. In 1943 he worked with the American saxophonists Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

 and Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

.

He returned to France in 1948 and spent the rest of his life there in part due to racial segregation

Racial segregation

Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

. In 1974 he received the Ordre National du Mérite

Ordre National du Mérite

The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...

.

External links

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