Anthony Coleman

Anthony Coleman (born August 30, 1955) is an American composer and avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on Cobra, Kristallnacht, The Big Gundown, Archery, and Spillane and helped push modern Jewish music into the 21st century.

Career At the age of thirteen, Coleman started studying piano with Jaki Byard. At the New England Conservatory of Music he studied with George Russell, Donald Martino and Malcolm Peyton.

Coleman's collaborators over the years have included guitarist Elliott Sharp, trumpeter Dave Douglas, accordion player Guy Klucevsek, composer David Shea, former Captain Beefheart bandmember Gary Lucas, classical and klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Greg Cohen, drummer Joey Baron and saxophonist Roy Nathanson.

Coleman's compositions and solo work reflect his interest in his Jewish background. His groups Sephardic Tinge and Selfhaters in the 1990s explored both the lively, rich and exuberant musical legacy as well as darkly described the lamentation of a minority culture in Diaspora. Sephardic Tinge toured extensively, especially throughout Europe, in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

His duo albums, The Coming Great Millenium, Lobster & Friend, and I Could've Been a Drum with Roy Nathanson, mostly explore the fun, frivolous and joyous alongside the nostalgic hearts and minds of Jews in modern and old America. These recordings typify Coleman's "free" playing style as well as his multi-instrumental capabilities with him also operating samplers, trombones, percussion as well as piano and voice. Coleman and Nathanson have performed all over the U.S. and Europe.

Discography

As leader Disco by Night (Avant, 1992) The Coming Great Millenium... (Knitting Factory, 1992) with Roy Nathanson Lobster and Friend (Knitting Factory, 1993) with Roy Nathanson Sephardic Tinge (Tzadik, 1995) Selfhaters (Tzadik, 1996) I Could've Been a Drum (Tzadik, 1997) with Roy Nathanson The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same (Tzadik, 1998) Morenica (Tzadik, 1998) With Every Breath: The Music of Shabbat at BJ (Knitting Factory, 1999) Our Beautiful Garden is Open (Tzadik, 2002) Shmutsige Magnaten (Tzadik, 2006) Pushy Blueness (Tzadik, 2006) Lapidation (New World, 2007) Freakish (Tzadik, 2009) The End of Summer (Tzadik, 2013)

As sideman With Ron Anderson Secret Curve (Tzadik, 2011) With Andrea Centazzo Back to the Future (Ictus, 2005) With Dave Douglas Sanctuary (Avant, 1997) With David Krakauer Klezmer Madness! (Tzadik, 1995) With Ikue Mori B/Side (Tzadik, 1998) One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (Tzadik, 2000) With Marc Ribot Rootless Cosmopolitans (Island, 1990) Requiem for What's His Name (Les Disques du Crepuscule, 1992) Shoe String Symphonettes (Tzadik, 1997) The Prosthetic Cubans (Atlantic, 1998) ¡Muy Divertido! (Atlantic, 2000) Scelsi Morning (Tzadik, 2003) Soundtracks Volume 2 (Tzadik, 2003) With Wadada Leo Smith Lake Biwa (Tzadik, 2004) With John Zorn Archery (Parachute, 1982) The Big Gundown (Nonesuch, 1986) Cobra (Hathut, 1986) Spillane (Elektra Nonesuch, 1987) Filmworks 1986–1990 (Elektra Nonesuch, 1992) Kristallnacht (Eva, 1993) John Zorn's Cobra: Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory, 1995) Filmworks II: Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill (Tzadik, 1996) Filmworks III: 1990–1995 (Tzadik, 1996) Bar Kokhba (Tzadik, 1996) Filmworks IV: S&M + More (Tzadik, 1997) New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands (Tzadik, 1997) Duras: Duchamp (Tzadik, 1997) The Parachute Years (Tzadik, 1997) Filmworks VIII: 1997 (Tzadik, 1998) The Bribe (Tzadik, 1998) Music for Children (Tzadik, 1998) Godard/Spillane (Tzadik, 1999) Voices in the Wilderness (Tzadik, 2003)

Filmography Sabbath in Paradise (1997) A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn (1999) The Lost String (2005) Following Eden (2006)

Compositions Latvian Counter-Gambit, for Chamber Orchestra Mise en Abime Goodbye and Good Luck