Biography
20 May 1896, Gainsville, Alabama, USA, d. 28 June 1950, Tuskegee, Alabama, USA. A blues harmonica player who recorded 15 titles between 1927 and 1930, Coleman drew his material from sources as varied as children’s playground songs and spirituals. Whatever the source of his nickname, it was unlikely that it related to the birdsong - his singing and playing were rooted in that of the field-holler. His technique was best exemplified by ‘No More Good Water’, a call-and-response blues, where the harmonica’s wailing quality is used as a second voice. It is thought he spent the last two decades of his life as a street musician in Bessemer, Alabama, finally succumbing to cancer at the age of 54. He, and George ‘Bullet’ Williams, are the only known harmonica players from Alabama recorded in their own right.
Read the Full Biography of Jaybird Coleman & The Birmingham Jug Band
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