Coleman Emerging From Jazz Underground

George Coleman is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill tenor saxophonist--he’s one of the most powerful and inventive players in modern music. Not everybody gets to play and record with drummer Max Roach, trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Herbie Hancock, to name just three of the jazz giants Coleman was associated with in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.

But while he has remained in high regard with his peers, since that peak period Coleman has been more of an underground figure than a primary player in the minds of most jazz fans. He records infrequently and is not often written up in jazz magazines. The lack of exposure and recognition is something that the New York-based Coleman has had to grin and bear. (His quartet opens a 6-night stand at Catalina Bar & Grill tonight.)

“I have to acknowledge it but I can’t dwell on it,” he said over the phone from his Manhattan apartment. “If I look around, I see many others in the same boat as me. Take Frank Foster. With all the the tenor saxophone he’s been playing through the years, he has not obtained the status he’s deserved, even though he’s now head of the Count Basie Orchestra. People like Frank and myself, we’re not paranoid and we’re not dreaming.”

Coleman, whose first domestic release as a leader was “Manhattan Panorama,” which came out on the small Bay Area Theresa label in 1985, has not made a lot of records, “because I didn’t get many offers and I didn’t like the offers I was getting,” he said. “My best relationship has been with Allen Pittman at Theresa. Maybe if I signed with a major label that could really interest the media in an artist, things might happen. I might get to be No. 6 in a tenor sax poll, instead of not being listed at all,” he added with an ironic chuckle.

The way he looks at it, whether he’s a big name or not, fortune has still smiled on George Coleman. “Everything is working out well,” he said. “I haved been able to make a fairly decent living, working choice gigs that pay well, and I’ve been lucky to have good audiences wherever I appear.”

Coleman, 53, a professional since he was 17, had his first big job with B. B. King. He figures that his success in person--recent appearances have been at Fat Tuesday’s in Manhattan, Ronnie Scott’s in London and a jazz festival in Amsterdam--is because he delivers the kind of music jazz lovers will stand in line to hear.

“I play a variety of things, from fast tempos and ballads to Latin and maybe some odd meter things,” he said. “I might play something that’s kind of spacey, but basically I stick to the roots of the music. I don’t really play any strange stuff.”

Asked to define the “roots of the music,” Coleman offered a brief but basic text in the essentials of the art of improvisation: “The swing, the melody, the harmony, the technical expertise, spontaneity, creativity, all the finer points that are sometimes lacking in the so-called new music of the day. I try to stick with the creative roots. You do whatever you feel like doing but with taste, quality, sound, feeling, technique and cleanliness.”

His performances are noted for their degree of intensity, and as far as Coleman’s concerned, that’s intentional. “When you get on the bandstand, you can’t be doing it weak, you have to do it strong,” he said. ‘Give it your best shot.’ That’s always been my motto, and I guess that’s why I’ve been successful.

Like many players, Coleman cites Charlie Parker as his primary influence, but sees Bird as a jumping-off point rather than an end. “Bird, that’s where I’m coming from,” he said, “but I’ve always tended to take a little bit of this, little bit of that and fuse them into my own direction.”

Through the high and low times, Coleman feels at home with himself, and has no complaints. “In each life we have our problems and things, but you just have to get through them, and with God’s help, and your inner strengths, you usually do,” he said. “You should be happy to just wake up in the morning, feel good about your music and feel good about living. Those are the things that inspire me to keep playing this music. Don’t worry about all those negative forces. Just sidestep them and keep going.”