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Author Topic: Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.  (Read 2897 times)

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Offline davyjenny1

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Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.
« on: September 28, 2012, 11:59:43 AM »

http://www.paulvernonchester.com/FitzroyColeman.htm

Fizroy Coleman, 76, was born in Alfredo Street, Woodbrook. His father, a steamroller driver, played the guitar for amusement, but did not want young Fitzroy to touch his prized instrument. So, he improvised one by nailing a flat pan to a piece of wood and stringing marling on it to let the boy amuse himself.  But at age 19, Fitzroy could take it no more and made for the guitar each time his father was out working, and began to teach himself to play.

He recounts the events as follows: "I started to invent chord constructions and rehearse the popular ballads of the day. It was only when he caught me and realized I could play without any teaching that he allowed me to use the guitar freely.  "On moonlight nights, Ray Holman's father, Leslie, would come over to our house and he would play his ukelele and I would be on the guitar. A lot of fellows used to come by and sing songs from Satchmo and Rudy Vallee and the talk would usually be how I make chords different to other guitar players.  "One of the people who came by was Victor Hudson, known then as 'Whistling Charlie'. He had a fake flute but he could whistle so sweetly that he was considered a musician. When he heard me play he asked my mother to let me go with him all through St Clair on his tours.

"Remember, this was in the thirties. Radio was not popular, so together with Steadman Butler on cuatro, we would learn the songs, however we got to hear them, and walk to St Clair and stand outside the gates of white people houses and play songs. They would come into their gallery to listen, then would send the maid out with some coins for us. But for those days, we made good money.  "My playing came to the attention of Captain Cipriani, who then introduced me to a whole new world by taking me to perform at dances and concerts in the Princes Building and the Royal Victoria Institute (now the National Museum). Meanwhile, I was also making some money playing for the tourists on the waterfront. But by 1942, I started playing formally with a big band. It was Len Woodley's orchestra, a band that worked for the elite.

"I played with Woodley until 1945, when an Englishman, Al Jennings, came to Trinidad to select a Caribbean All Stars Band and I was chosen as the guitarist, even though I could not read music. They said I was a drinker and knockabout but Rupert Nurse, who was chosen as the arranger, stood up for me and promised to teach me the notes when we got to England.

"We left here in October, 1945. All I had was my guitar and the clothes on my back. I did not even know that there was a thing called winter. It was a soldier on the boat who gave me a coat. But from the first time they heard me play in London, I nearly always enjoyed steady work, which continued for all of the 26 years I spent there."

Coleman's unique style of playing chords to match virtually each note in a song's bass line, caught the attention of all who would listen. When the band with which he left Trinidad folder while on tour to Paris, Coleman was selected from the lot to perform at London's prestigious Mill Roy Club. It was there that he made some of his more valuable contact, spending may hours after work relaxing with the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis when they were in London, and exchanging notes, as it were, with Hoagy Carmichael whenever he was in town.

Coleman married in 1947. His wife, Victoria, was well connected, although the war had devastated the family's clubs. But she became his manager and piloted his flight to the top of the heap of jazz guitarists.  He regularly played sessions for BBC TV and was featured at all the top nightclubs. Business got so good, Coleman was soon able to offer regular work to the very band members that begged him to go to London.

Fitzroy Coleman Improvisation

Coleman also introduced Lord Kitchener to the circuit when the latter arrived in London in 1951. He worked on Kitchener's early recordings and did some work for Beginner, who had accompanied Kitch to the UK.  Coleman continued to amaze audiences until his retirement from the British scene in 1975.  Now, he lives with his second wife, Edna, surviving on royalties from his life's work.

Fitzroy Coleman - Body & Soul

 
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Offline Dutty

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Re: Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2012, 08:09:27 AM »
Good post breds,, I never even hear da fellah name before
Little known fact: The online transportation medium called Uber was pioneered in Trinidad & Tobago in the 1960's. It was originally called pullin bull.

Offline Cocorite

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Re: Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2012, 08:10:34 AM »
Good post breds,, I never even hear da fellah name before

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Offline Conquering Lion

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Re: Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2012, 10:22:06 AM »
One of the greats........It is always amazing the talent that Trinidad produces and we as a people fail to recognize them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oItrPdTJcSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMw0P8U_Ko&feature=relmfu

Check out some of the other interviews in youtube on his playing style. Eddie Grant actually went looking for him after listening some of the old calypsos and asking who are the guitarists on the album.....not realizing it was one man playing.
We fire de old set ah managers we had wukkin..and iz ah new group we went and we bring in. And if the goods we require de new managers not supplying, when election time come back round iz new ones we bringin. For iz one ting about my people I can guarantee..They will never ever vote party b4 country

Offline Swima

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Re: Featuring Fitzroy Coleman - Jazz Guitarist, Trinidadian.
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2012, 08:28:14 AM »
I believe he is on an internationally recognized list of the 100 greatest guitarists ever.
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