Burl C. "Jaybird" Coleman (May 20, 1896 – January 28, 1950) was an American

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

harmonica player, vocalist, and guitarist. He was a popular musical attraction throughout Alabama and recorded several sides in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Biography

Coleman was born to a family of

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

Gainesville, Alabama Gainesville is a town in Sumter County, Alabama, United States. Founded in 1832, it was incorporated in 1835. At the 2010 census the population was 208, down from 220. Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest surrendered his men nea ...

, United States. While he and his three brothers endured hard physical labor, he was exposed to musical influences from his fellow sharecroppers in singing and discovering traditional folk songs. At age 12, he was introduced to the harmonica, in large part teaching himself, and was encouraged by his parents to hone his skills as an alternative to their wearying occupation. He performed locally for small wages at dance halls and parties. In 1914, upon the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Coleman joined the United States Army and was stationed at

Fort McClellan Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, is a decommissioned United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million tr ...

for the entirety of the conflict. At the fort, he developed a reputation for being stubbornly independent, often disobeying the Army's strict code of conduct. As a result, his superior officers would call him Jaybird, a nickname associated with him for the rest of his life. During this time Coleman first performed for large crowds as he entertained his fellow soldiers. After his

military discharge A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

, he briefly returned to Gainesville, working for a few months as a farm labourer, before relocating with his younger brother, Joe, to

Bessemer, Alabama Bessemer is a southwestern suburb of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 census. It is within the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, of which Jefferson County is the ...

, and becoming a full-time musician. In 1922, Coleman teamed up with the singer and guitarist

Big Joe Williams Joseph Lee "Big Joe" Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over five decades, he recorded the s ...

in tours across Alabama. He then traveled for two years with the

Rabbit Foot Minstrels The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s) Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long-running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and the late 1950s. It was establi ...

, a popular tent show, making appearances throughout the South. Returning to Bessemer, Coleman married a popular local singer, and the couple supported themselves by performing as a duo. The Colemans were regular churchgoers and were renowned in the black community for their renditions of

gospel song Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

s. As a blues musician, Coleman was popular with black and white audiences alike. Occasionally he would play a harmonica as he strolled through the streets, drawing a crowd that followed him. In 1926, Coleman began recording for

Gennett Records Gennett (pronounced "jennett") was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and ...

, Silvertone Records, and

Black Patti Records Black Patti Records was a short-lived American record label based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, founded by Mayo Williams in 1927. It was named after the black opera singer Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, who was called Black Patti becau ...

as a solo performer and as a member of the Bessemer Blues Pickers. His records were met with commercial success, but he asserted he was never compensated for his work. Despite his treatment by white-owned record companies, he allowed a charter of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

to manage his touring schedule and expand his audience to major southern cities. Typically, Coleman's performances featured little or no accompaniment in a style rooted in the work songs of his childhood. He particularly favored the high-pitched E and D harps and played them with a heavily choked cross-harp technique, marked by a rapid hand

vibrato Vibrato ( Italian, from past participle of " vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms ...

. In the 1930s, Coleman was loosely associated with the Birmingham Jug Band, a group he helped form, and recorded with them in sessions for

OKeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

. In 1930, he recorded "Coffee Grinder Blues" for Columbia, which, in a dispute with the label over payment, he blocked from wider release. It is his rarest record. Coleman continued to perform on street corners in Alabama throughout the 1930s and 1940s. By the end of the 1940s, he disappeared from the music scene. He died of cancer on January 28, 1950, in

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...

Compilation

*Jaybird Coleman & the Birmingham Jug Band, ''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order: 1927–1930'' (Document, 1992)

References

External links

Biography on Alabama Music Hall of Fame site

Profile on Answers.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Jaybird 1896 births 1950 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers African-American guitarists American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues harmonica players American blues singers American street performers Deaths from cancer in Alabama Harmonica blues musicians Singers from Alabama People from Sumter County, Alabama People from Tuskegee, Alabama Piedmont blues musicians 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Alabama Gennett Records artists Okeh Records artists Columbia Records artists