Live at Smalls Jazz Club George Coleman

• 1Four11:26
• 2At Last06:27
• 3My Funny Valentine09:34
• 4Meditation08:39
• 5Blues for Smalls08:08
• 6Nearness of You11:17
• 7New York, New York07:10
• 8When Sunny Gets Blue08:17
• Total Runtime01:10:58

Info for Live at Smalls Jazz Club

The 5th album in the Smalls Living Masters series finds tenor titan George Coleman in the company of pianist Spike Wilner, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth in the intimate confines of Smalls Jazz Club. In the words of George Coleman "this record is a tribute to our great city and all of our great fans." Coleman is on fire and sound better than ever!

Here's the notes from drummer Joe Farnsworth:

George Coleman started his 70th year as a professional musician on fire. The year 2022 brought about gigs at Dizzy’s, The Side Door, The Village Vanguard and finishing with a gig at the Caramoor Jazz Fest celebrating his 87th birthday. He is playing better than ever! At each place, he left the stage to standing ovations and music lovers with tears in their eyes. After Caramoor, I played our monthly Monday night Spike Wilner Trio gig at Mezzrow. During the break Spike was telling me about his new project called The SmallsLIVE Foundation Living Masters Series grant. I said we have the greatest master right here in our backyard: the King of NY, BIG G!

Strike while the iron is hot and Spike did. A two-minute conversation turned into one of George Coleman’s best record dates ever. When two or more people get together that love music as much as George and Spike do, love will be the result. The quartet on this date is George Coleman on tenor, Spike Wilner on piano, Peter Washington on bass and myself on drums. The music consists of all the George Coleman hits throughout his career.

As George said to me during a recent phone call: “this record is a tribute to our great city and all of our great fans. Whether you live here or just visit for the music, you are a New Yorker. We play for the PEOPLE. I have been playing for great fans forever at clubs like Slugs, Boomers, the Tin Palace with Philly Joe and Barry Harris, Village Vanguard, Dizzy’s, Smoke, and now Smalls.”

Smalls is where we recorded this record and here’s what George had to say about the project: “Things just fall into place there with Spike on piano. It’s all about the feeling. The support I get from him, Pete and yourself - the energy I get from the crowd. It’s a feeling and the Quartet is able to connect things there. It’s all about connection and how you make it. It’s got to be smooth. This quartet allows me to do that.” What about the tunes for the date, what’s the connection? George says: My Funny Valentine, people love that song. Anything we do from my time with Miles Davis will be fine.” His rendition of this song brought a chill over all of us at the session - best rendition ever! The song Four he says, “Four is another Miles hit that I like to play to give the quartet a lift. When you get on the bandstand you have to lift off. You’re in trouble if you don’t.” On The Nearness Of You: “I love playing ballads, it’s where all those years of living pay off - and I got a few years under my belt. People love hearing the old stuff. The proof is in the response we get from the fans.”

This from a man who’s first professional gig was for a house party in Memphis in 1954 for $2! He went on to play with BB King for two years. It was with all the blues players coming through Memphis that he learned about tonalities and playing in any key. When he was 20, he started arranging and did one for Ray Charles. George said the doo-wop group Moonglows asked him for one and but they wouldn’t pay him the $10 he asked for - so he told them to “hit the road, Jack”. Later, he went to Chicago with Max Roach and then to NYC for Miles, Kenny Dorham, Slide Hampton, Harold Mabern and Jamil Nasser. George brings all of this every time he plays.

I asked him if he feels differently now playing at 87 then he did that first song he recorded with BB King in 1955: “Well I’m more adventurous now. My technique has improved. Ever since the blues days I’m always reaching, I want to be different - knowledge accumulated through playing all these years. I hope to be able to tell a complete story that our fans will enjoy. Time brings improvement!

Thank you, Big G for the absolute greatness documented here on this CD - Life, Dedication, Perseverance, Swing, NYC, fans, practice and what greatness is. Thank you, SmallsLIVE Masters Series for recording this legend – and, as always, thank you music lovers around the world!

George Coleman, tenor saxophone
Spike Wilner, piano
Peter Washington, bass
Joe Farnsworth, drums

George Edward Coleman
(born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master.

Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was taught how to play the alto saxophone in his teens by his older brother Lucian Adams, inspired (like many jazz musicians of his generation) by Charlie Parker. Among his schoolmates were Harold Mabern, Booker Little, Frank Strozier, Hank Crawford, and Charles Lloyd.

After working with Ray Charles, Coleman started working with B.B. King in 1953, at which point he switched to tenor saxophone.[4] In 1956 Coleman moved to Chicago, along with Booker Little, where he worked with Gene Ammons and Johnny Griffin before joining Max Roach's quintet (1958–1959). Coleman recorded with organist Jimmy Smith on his album Houseparty (1957), along with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Burrell, and Donald Bailey. Moving to New York City with Max Roach in that year, he went on to play with Slide Hampton (1959–1962), Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, and Wild Bill Davis (1962), before joining Miles Davis' quintet in 1963–1964.

His albums with Davis (and the rhythm section of Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums)) are Seven Steps to Heaven (1963), A Rare Home Town Appearance (1963), Côte Blues (1963), In Europe (1963), My Funny Valentine, and Four & More, both live recordings of a concert in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City in February 1964. Shortly after this concert, Coleman was replaced by Wayne Shorter. Nevertheless, Davis retained a high opinion of Coleman's playing, stating that "George played everything almost perfectly...He was a hell of a musician." Coleman played with Lionel Hampton (1965–1966), also in 1965 on Chet Baker's The Prestige Sessions, with Kirk Lightsey, Herman Wright, and Roy Brooks.[6] Clark Terry, Horace Silver, Elvin Jones (1968), Shirley Scott (1972), Cedar Walton (1975), Charles Mingus (1977–1978), Ahmad Jamal (1994, 2000), and many others.

Coleman also appeared in the science-fiction film Freejack (1992), starring Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, and Anthony Hopkins; and 1996's The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.

Coleman recorded into the 2000s. His CD as co-leader, Four Generations of Miles: A Live Tribute To Miles, with bassist Ron Carter, drummer Jimmy Cobb and guitarist Mike Stern was released on Chesky Records in October 2002, and it concentrates almost exclusively on the 1950s repertoire of Miles Davis. Tracks include: "There Is No Greater Love", "All Blues", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Blue in Green", "81", "Freddie Freeloader", "My Funny Valentine", "If I Were a Bell", and "Oleo". He was featured on Joey DeFrancesco's 2006 release Organic Vibes, along with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, Billboard's Top Jazz Album Chart, peaked to No. 17.

Coleman was married to jazz organist Gloria Coleman and is father to jazz drummer George Coleman Jr. He was named an NEA Jazz Master and to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015, and received a brass note on the Beale Street Brass Notes Walk of Fame.

This album contains no booklet.