Anthony Coleman

Accomplished keyboardist and composer Anthony Coleman earned acclaim during the 1980s and 1990s as a standout figure in New York City’s downtown avant-garde and klezmer-inflected jazz circles. He has collaborated and recorded with nearly every participant in that scene, among them John Zorn, guitarist Elliott Sharp, David Moss, renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas, premier accordion player Guy Klucevsek, David Shea, former Captain Beefheart bandmember Gary Lucas, classical and klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, guitarist Marc Ribot, and numerous others. Coleman has appeared and recorded internationally with his ensembles Sephardic Tinge, which completed three European tours and issued two CDs, and the Selfhaters, all of whose releases appeared on the Tzadik label. The related Avant imprint issued his Disco by Night, a project shaped by his time in ex-Yugoslavia. For most of the 1990s he co-directed ventures with saxophonist Roy Nathanson, jointly performing throughout the United States and Europe; the pair also cut several albums together, one of which is Lobster and Friend. Commissions for his compositions have come from Bang on a Can, Concert Artists Guild, and the Crosstown Ensemble. His pieces appear on harpist Carol Emanuel’s Koch release Tops of Trees and on Guy Klucevsek’s accordion extravaganza Manhattan Cascade, among additional recordings. In 2006 Coleman issued two albums: Shmutsige Magnaten, featuring his interpretations of songs by Yiddish folk composer Mordechai Geburtig, who died during the Holocaust, and Pushy Blueness.