James R. Coe was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 saxophonist.

He first played in a band with Erroll "Groundhog" Grandy who mentored J. J. Johnson and Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...

. From 1938 to 1940, Coe was with Buddy Bryant's band and by the age of 20, was already touring with the Jay McShann

Jay McShann

Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....

 band, which included Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, Al Hibbler

Al Hibbler

Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...

, Walter Brown

Walter Brown (singer)

Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

, Bernard Anderson

Bernard Anderson

Bernard Hartwell "Step-Buddy" Anderson was an American jazz trumpeter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Having studied music at school under Zelia Breaux, Anderson was a professional musician by 1934, playing with the Ted Armstrong band in Clinton, Oklahoma...

, Gene Ramey

Gene Ramey

Gene Ramey was an American jazz double bassist.Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, and played trumpet in college, but switched to sousaphone when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders, and Terrence Holder. In 1932 he moved to Kansas City and took up the bass, studying with...

 and Harold "Doc" West

Doc West

Harold "Doc" West was an American jazz drummer.West learned to play piano and cello as a child before switching to drums. In the 1930s he played in Chicago with Tiny Parham, Erskine Tate, and Roy Eldridge . Late in the 1930s he filled in for Chick Webb when Webb was unable to lead his own orchestra...

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In the 1950s, Coe recorded for King

King Records (USA)

King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...

 as a member of Tiny Bradshaw

Tiny Bradshaw

Myron C. Bradshaw was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer from Youngstown, Ohio.-Early years:...

's band, then made a session with his own combo (though the company insisted on billing him as Jimmy "Cole.") In 1953, States

States Records

States Record Company was a Chicago-based record label. A subsidiary of United Records, it was in business from May 1952 to December 1957. States focused on rhythm and blues, jazz, and gospel....

 recorded his Gay Cats of Rhythm. In the late 1950s, Coe led the house band for the small Indianapolis-based label Note Records; some of the material was licensed to Checker

Checker Records

Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.The label...

, which had better distribution.

With his mid-60s big band he backed performers including Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, Roy Hamilton

Roy Hamilton

Roy Hamilton was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s...

, and Gladys Knight & the Pips

Gladys Knight & the Pips

Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight...

.

Other musicians he worked with included Montgomery, Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton

Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...

, David Baker, Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard

Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...

, pianist Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins (pianist)

Carl Perkins was an American jazz pianist.Perkins was born in Indianapolis but worked mainly in Los Angeles. He is best known for his performances with the Curtis Counce Quintet, which also featured Harold Land, Jack Sheldon and drummer Frank Butler...

, Larry Ridley

Larry Ridley

Larry Ridley is an American jazz bassist and music educator.-Biography:Ridley was born and reared in Indianapolis, IN. He began performing professionally while still in high school in the 1950s. Ridley studied at the Indiana University School of Music and later at the Lenox School of Jazz...

, and Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar was an American jazz bassist.Born in Indianapolis, the self-taught Vinnegar established his reputation in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. His trademark was the rhythmic "walking" bass line, a steady series of ascending or descending notes, and it brought him the nickname...

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