Gary B.B. Coleman was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 soul blues

Soul blues

Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music...

 guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

.

Originally a local-musician turned-blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 promoter and session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

, Coleman recorded his debut album in 1986, which was re-released on Ichiban Records

Ichiban Records

Ichiban Records was a hip hop record label founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985. Wrap Records and Nastymix Records were some of its subsidiary labels. Urgent! Records was distributed by Ichiban. Most of its discography is now out of print. Besides hip hop groups, Ichiban also released albums by...

. Coleman issued several other albums, and produced most of Ichiban's blues catalog up to his death in 1994. On many occasions, Coleman undertook multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

 duties in the recording studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

. Coleman acknowledged both B.B. King in his "B.B." moniker; and his fellow-Texan, Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

.

Biography

Born in Paris

Paris, Texas

Paris, Texas is a city located northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex in Lamar County, Texas, in the United States. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. In 1900, 9,358 people lived...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Coleman was working alongside Freddie King by the age of 15. Coleman later supported Lightnin' Hopkins

Lightnin' Hopkins

Sam John Hopkins better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas...

 in concert, and went on to form his own group. At this time he started simultaneously booking acts into nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

s across three states; Texas, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, and Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. This dual lifestyle in the Southwest continued for nearly twenty years. In 1985, he created his own independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

, called Mr. B's Records, and issued both a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "One Eyed Woman", and his debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, Nothin' But the Blues, the following year. The album proved to be popular. Ichiban Records signed Coleman to a recording contract

Recording contract

A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...

, and duly re-released Nothin' But the Blues on their label in 1987.

If You Can Beat Me Rockin (1988) followed, and in the same year Coleman's duties expanded with Ichiban to include record production for other acts, songwriting, and becoming an A&R

A&R

Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...

 scout. He released a further six albums up to 1992, as well as production duties on albums from Blues Boy Willie

Blues Boy Willie

William Daniel McFalls, better known as Blues Boy Willie , is an African American electric blues singer and harmonica player from Memphis, Texas...

, Chick Willis

Chick Willis

Robert "Chick" Willis is an American blues singer. His cousin was Chuck Willis.Chick Willis served in the military in the early 1950s before working as a chauffeur for Chuck Willis during his heyday...

, Little Johnny Taylor

Little Johnny Taylor

Little Johnny Taylor was an American blues and soul singer, who made recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and continued public performances through the 1980s and 1990s....

, and Buster Benton

Buster Benton

Buster Benton was an American blues guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of...

 (Money's the Name of the Game, 1989).

He continued to write material for others and sometimes played guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and keyboards

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 on their records. His own albums featured self-penned material, such as "I Fell in Love on a One Night Stand" and "If You Can Beat Me Rockin' (You Can Have My Chair)".

Coleman successfully continued to combine various roles until his early death in 1994.

Discography

• Nothin' But the Blues (1987) - Ichiban
  Ichiban Records
  Ichiban Records was a hip hop record label founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985. Wrap Records and Nastymix Records were some of its subsidiary labels. Urgent! Records was distributed by Ichiban. Most of its discography is now out of print. Besides hip hop groups, Ichiban also released albums by...
  
   - United States R&B
  Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
  Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
  
   #74
• If You Can Beat Me Rockin'... (1988) - Ichiban
• One Night Stand (1989) - Ichiban
• Dancin' My Blues Away (1990) - Ichiban
• Romance Without Finance Is a Nuisance (1991) - Ichiban
• The Best of Gary B.B. Coleman (1991) - Ichiban
• Too Much Weekend (1992) - Ichiban
• Cocaine Annie (1996) - Icehouse Records

External links

• Biography and discography at Bluescritic.com