Bill Coleman
b. 4 August 1904, Centreville, Kentucky, USA, d. 24 August 1981. Despite trying various reed instruments, Coleman switched to trumpet after hearing records by Louis Armstrong and served his apprenticeship during the late '20s and early '30s in a string of amateur, semi-pro and professional bands, including those led by J.C. Higginbotham, Edgar Hayes, Lloyd and Cecil Scott, Luis Russell, Charlie Johnson, Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, Teddy Hill and Fats Waller. By the mid-30s Coleman's wide experience meant that he was in great demand, but wanderlust led him to join all-round entertainer Freddy Taylor, whom Coleman had taught to play trumpet while in the Millinder band. The Taylor band spent time in Paris and then Coleman headed for Bombay, India, with Leon Abbey, returning to Paris for an engagement with Willie Lewis. In 1938 he co-led a band with Herman Chittison, which worked in Egypt until shortly after the outbreak of World War II. Back in the USA in 1940 he worked again with Benny Carter and Fats Waller and thereafter with the bands of Andy Kirk, Noble Sissle, Mary Lou Williams and John Kirby. After World War II he returned to Paris, where he resided for the rest of his life, touring other European countries and making only rare trips back to his homeland. A fluid, inventive player, Coleman was an elegant trumpeter with a full, rich sound which echoed his childhood idolization of Armstrong, but which he cloaked in his own, unmistakable style. He died in 1981.