Steve Coleman and Five Elements

b. 20 September 1956, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Growing up surrounded by dance music - funk, rock, soul and blues - in Chicago's south side gave Coleman a taste for rhythm he never lost. He learned violin in school, but abandoned it for the alto saxophone at the age of 15, playing in James Brown cover bands. At Illinois Wesleyan University he was the only black person in the music department, quite a shock for someone who says he ‘did not know any white people until he was 17 or something'. Told to improvise in his jazz band, he checked out his record collection to find that his...