George Coleman

[sheldonm]

I got a chance to see, photograph and talk with George Coleman last night in Chicago. He played with a local but very tight rhythm section (Willie Pickens on Piano, Larry Gray on Bass and Dana Hall on Drums). George played the "Miles Davis" Songbook and a handful of other tunes and sounded very good. The crowd was sparse with only about 60 people there. I talked to him for awhile after the show and gave him a photograph I made of him a few years ago. I told him I was from Indianapolis and he began to talk about some of this friends that grew up there (Jimmy Spaulding, Freddie and Slide, Mel Rhyne and Buddy Montgomery, it was very cool, the feelings he has for these guys.....then the strangest thing happened; Some guy in the audience asked all the band members if he could jam with them on one song after the show (when the other patrons were gone). They actually said "yes". I stuck around for this guys "audition" and he was pretty good. While he was playing, the bassist had a grin on his face as if to say "hey, this guys better than I thought. I'm not sure what the deal was, maybe it was just this guys dream to play with these guys, or maybe his 15 minutes of fame. If "this guys" is a member of this BB, step up and share your story!!!!

Mark